Department for Transport

Roads: Safety

Drew Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how his Department will monitor implementation of the measures set out in the Government's British Road Safety Statement, published in December 2015.

Andrew Jones: The British Road Safety Statement was published on 21 December 2015. It includes a number of actions to be delivered across government and in partnership with others in private, public and civil society organisations.We are currently setting up monitoring arrangements.

Roads: Industrial Health and Safety

Drew Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what action he intends to take against employers who neglect their responsibilities for occupational road safety; and whether he plans to support an extension of the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 to include work-related road casualties.

Andrew Jones: The main regulatory aspects of driving for work are enforced by the Police. They take the lead in the investigating road traffic incidents and can refer cases to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) if they believe there are clear employer management failings contributing to the incident. In our British Road Safety Statement, published in December, we highlighted helping employers to reduce road related collisions at work as a priority. We will start this process by evaluating existing safer driving for work schemes to understand what works, with a view to promoting existing good practice to employer networks and other occupational drivers. The government has no plans to extend the scope of the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations [RIDDOR] to cover work related road incidents.

Roads: Suicide

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many (a) suicides and (b) attempted suicides were recorded as having taken place on the strategic road network in each year since 2009-10; and what work Highways England has undertaken with the Samaritans related to suicides on roads.

Andrew Jones: Highways England records details on its Command and Control (C&C) database, of incidents that occur on the strategic road network, but only when the Traffic Officer Service have an awareness or involvement. Therefore due to the current Traffic Officer network coverage, the majority of incidents recorded occurred on the motorway network.  The following table records the number of incidents coded as ‘suicide/suicide attempt’ on the C&C database and reflect those incidents that the Traffic Officer Service have been directly involved in or have been reported to them: YearNumber of suicides/attempted suicide incidents2009/10932010/111252011/121102012/1384 In April 2014 a review of the database was carried out and the closure code for ‘suicide/attempted suicide’ was changed. This created significant anomalies in the data capture which means that the 2014/15 data are not robust. We are in the process of verifying the data and will be in a position to provide the figures later this year. Highways England (formerly Highways Agency) has worked closely with organisations such as the Samaritans in helping to prevent further suicides on the strategic road network. Highways England has commenced work to take forward a Suicide Prevention Group. This group will comprise of relevant stakeholders such as the Samaritans, emergency services and our service providers to develop and co-ordinate delivery of an action plan to reduce the number of suicide attempts on the strategic road network. We are also working closely with both the Samaritans and Network Rail to identify best practice following their success in reducing suicide attempts on the rail network. Known suicide hotspots are investigated to look at possible improvements, such as raising the height of the parapets on bridges and introducing or improving crisis signing. Highways England consults The Samaritans when undertaking this work.

British Transport Police

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many (a) police officers, (b) police community support officers, (c) special officers and (d) police dogs were in the service of the British Transport Police on the most recent date for which figures are available.

Claire Perry: As of 9 February 2016, the British Transport Police has (a) 3,061 officers (compared to 2,901 in 2009/10), (b) 362 police community support officers (compared to 340 in 2009/10), (c) 285 special officers and (d) 38 police dogs in service.

British Transport Police

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which British Transport Police sites have closed since May 2010.

Claire Perry: Since May 2010, there have been 9 operational closures of British Transport Police sites at the following locations:DebdenEaling BroadwayHastingsIpswichSt LeonardsTauntonWood GreenWatfordWednesbury The BTP has advised that the closure of these operational posts has not affected the policing capability or visibility at these locations. The majority of the offices closed were either very small satellite offices or in unsuitable locations where coverage is more cost-effectively provided from larger neighbouring stations. Additionally, two further sites have closed since May 2010 but they have been replaced by newer refurbished premises in the same vicinity.

Shipping: Pay

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2016 to Question 24915, which potential employment protections would protect seafarers from nationality-based pay discrimination.

Mr Robert Goodwill: Both the Equality Act 2010 (Work on Ships and Hovercraft) Regulations 2011 and the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 (with the section pertaining to seafarers currently under review by BIS) offer protection from nationality-based pay discrimination.

Shipping: Apprentices

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24913, what assessment he has made of the likely take-up of the (a) deck and (b) other Maritime Trailblazer ratings apprenticeships (i) before and (ii) after the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy from April 2017.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The Apprenticeship Levy will encourage the take up of apprenticeships generally. It is not possible to say how it might impact on individual apprenticeships, particularly those still under development.

Shipping: Skilled Workers

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2016 to Question 24416, what steps the Government is taking to prevent the downturn from further affecting the national maritime skills base.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The Maritime Growth Study chaired by Lord Mountevans and published on 7 September 2015 identified areas that would help the UK to compete successfully within a global market. These included Government and industry carrying out an assessment of the requirement for seafarers in the UK. Work on this has already commenced alongside an extension of the apprenticeship programme. The Government remains committed to the training of seafarers and has a number of policies to grow the UK’s maritime skills base, in particular through the £15m Support for Maritime Training (SMarT) fund. A review of the SMarT programme will start shortly and will take into account the impact of the low oil price on the North Sea fields.

Department for Communities and Local Government

Housing: Corby

Tom Pursglove: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much Corby Borough Council received under the New Homes Bonus in each year since 2010.

Brandon Lewis: The New Homes Bonus was introduced in 2011. To date the total New Homes Bonus payments allocated to Corby Borough Council is £3,135,997. The breakdown in years is in the table belowNew Homes Bonus allocations to Corby Borough CouncilYear 1 (2011-2012)£415,135 Year 2 (2012-2013)£651,254 Year 3 (2013-2014)£534,431 Year 4 (2014-2015)£542,088 Year 5 (2015-2016)£504,895 Year 6 (2016-2017) - Provisional allocations£488,194 Total£3,135,997

Homelessness: Salford

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much central government funding has been allocated to programmes in (a) Salford City Council and (b) Salford and Eccles constituency to reduce and prevent homelessness in (i) 2014-15 and (ii) 2015-16 to date.

Mr Marcus Jones: One person without a home is one too many and we are committed to do all we can to prevent homelessness. We have protected the homelessness prevention funding local authorities receive, totalling £315 million by 2019-20. This builds on the Spending Review commitment to increase central government funding to £139 million over the next four years. We will work with homelessness organisations to consider other options, including legislation, to ensure those at risk of homelessness get earlier and more effective support.Funding is allocated at a local authority level. Salford City Council was allocated the following amounts based on the homelessness prevention funding formula within the Local Government Finance Settlement:- 2014-2015: £70,591- 2015-2016: £70,319

Aerials: Planning Permission

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the benefits of granting permitted development rights to mobile network masts up to 50 metres in height in non-protected areas.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effects of changes in 2013 to permitted development rights on the roll-out of 4G mobile services; and what assessment he has made of the potential for reforms to lead to greater roll-out of 4G mobile services.

Brandon Lewis: The review of how the planning system in England can further support the delivery of mobile connectivity sought views on the planning changes made in 2013 including 4G deployment and the case for taller ground based masts. The outcome will be announced in due course.

Fracking: Planning Permission

Mr Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will ensure that decisions on planning applications for fracking are taken within the local government planning process.

Mr Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what consultation he plans to undertake on changes to the planning process for applications for fracking.

James Wharton: The Government has in place a local government led process for the consideration of planning applications for shale gas exploration. As part of this, mineral planning authorities have a responsibility to consider such applicationsunder the Town and Country Planning regime. The Government has taken steps to ensure this locally led regime is effective, as set out in Written Ministerial Statements made on 16 September, HCWS201 and HCWS202. This includes making available £1.2 million to ensure mineral planning authorities have adequate resource to reach timely decisions.Community involvement in planning applications and people’s safety and the environment will remain paramount. No decision has been made to take shale gas exploration out of this local government led process and there are no plans currently to consult on such a change.

Derelict Land

Mr Douglas Carswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has to extend the classification criteria of brownfield sites for housebuilding.

Brandon Lewis: Brownfield land is defined as previously developed land in the National Planning Policy Framework. We are consulting on whether it would be beneficial to strengthen national policy on the development of brownfield land for housing. The consultation closes on 22 February.

Housing: Construction

Mr Geoffrey Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the post-construction obligations on large volume housing developers in enforcing compliance with building regulations.

James Wharton: It is the responsibility of the housing developer to ensure that work is compliant with the building regulations both during construction and post-construction. During the construction period, the building control body would be responsible for checking compliance. Post-construction, where there is a new home warranty in place, the warranty provider provides cover for up to ten years after construction and can include compliance with aspects of the building regulations.

Help to Buy Scheme

Mr Jonathan Lord: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to promote Help to Buy.

Brandon Lewis: The Department promotes awareness of Help to Buy through the two Government websites Help to Buy and Own Your Home, through regular updates on the Help to Buy Twitter and Facebook accounts and through press advertising to promote Help to Buy: Equity Loan and London Help to Buy.Over 62,500 homes have been purchased through Help to Buy: Equity Loan, to end September 2015. On 1 February, we launched London Help to Buy which will enable people to purchase a home with up to 40% equity loan of the purchase price and a deposit as low as 5%. It could potentially help over 10,000 households to purchase a home in London over the next five years.

Shared Ownership

Mr Jonathan Lord: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to promote shared ownership.

Brandon Lewis: Shared Ownership has an important role to play in helping those who aspire to home ownership but may be otherwise unable to afford it. The Autumn Statement confirmed £4.1 billion for 135,000 new Help to Buy: Shared Ownership starts by 2021 and we have relaxed restrictions on who can buy Shared Ownership homes. A new prospectus for the Affordable Homes Programme will be published in the spring.

Derelict Land

Mr Jonathan Lord: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to promote the development of brownfield land.

Brandon Lewis: We are creating a £2 billion long term housing development fund to unlock housing on brownfield land. We will also require local authorities in England to maintain registers of brownfield land that is suitable for housing. In addition we are consulting on whether it would be beneficial to strengthen national planning policy on the development of brownfield land for housing. The consultation closes on 22 February.

Devolution: North of England

Graham Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to devolve powers to the local level under the Northern Powerhouse.

James Wharton: Devolution deals are progressing well across the north having already been agreed with Greater Manchester, Sheffield, Tees Valley, the North East and Liverpool, all of which will see directly elected mayors introduced in return for substantial new powers and budgets. Discussions with other areas across the north are progressing.

Housing: Construction

Jo Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made on the proportion of new build housing constructed in this Parliament that will be bungalows.

Brandon Lewis: It is not for the Department to estimate the amount of new build housing that will be bungalows. The National Planning Policy Framework and planning guidance requires local authorities to plan for a mix of housing based on current and future demographic trends, and the needs of different groups in their area.

Homelessness

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people were recorded as homeless in each region in each of the last five years.

Mr Marcus Jones: The number of households accepted as being owed a main homelessness duty in each region of England in the last five financial years is shown in the atttached table. 



Table
(Word Document, 21.52 KB)

Regional Planning and Development: Cumbria

Mr Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many projects planned for West Cumbria will be (a) part-funded and (b) wholly-funded by the EU.

James Wharton: The Department is unable to predict how many projects in West Cumbria will come forward for funding from the EU.

Regional Planning and Development: Cumbria

Mr Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many projects in West Cumbria have been (a) part-funded and (b) wholly-funded by the EU in each of the last 10 years.

James Wharton: The Department is unable to confirm how many projects in West Cumbria have been part-funded by the EU in the last ten years. DCLG is able to confirm that during the 2007-13 European Regional Development Fund programme 11 projects were funded in Cumbria. The regulatory requirement is for applicants to provide 50% of match-funding to support investment. No European Regional Development Fund projects were wholly-funded by the EU in the last 10 years.

Multiple Occupation: Licensing

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the number of licences issued for houses of multiple occupation in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) the UK in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Brandon Lewis: The numbers of licences issued for houses in multiple occupation during the relevant period were: 2011/122012/132013/142014/15 Coventry233216282357 West Midlands1,4262,9973,2843,562 England34,46436,25627,18238,530  The Department only began collecting this data in 2011 and collects data in respect of England.Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-housing-data

Multiple Occupation: Licensing

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the number of rent repayment orders issued to houses in multiple occupation which were not adequately licensed in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Brandon Lewis: The Department does not collect or hold information about the number of rent repayment orders issued in respect of unlicensed houses in multiple occupation.A local authority may apply to the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) for such an order if Housing Benefit was paid to cover or assist with rent payments during the period a house in multiple occupation was required to be licensed, but was not. Information about the number of rent repayment orders issued to local authorities will be held by the authorities themselves.

Multiple Occupation

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether his Department plans to categorise houses which are overcrowded and have fewer than three storeys as houses in multiple occupation; and if he will make a statement.

Brandon Lewis: The Department has recently consulted on options for extending the scope of mandatory licensing to include those Houses in Multiple Occcupation in England with fewer than three storeys. We plan to announce our proposals and next steps in the spring.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Tunisia: Terrorism

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support the Government has provided to witnesses, survivors and the families of victims of the terrorist attack in Sousse, Tunisia, on 26 June 2015.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: Immediately after the terrorist attack in Sousse, a helpline was set up to provide advice to British nationals in the area. At the height of the crisis there were 140 FCO, Police, MoD and DfT staff in Tunisia. Rapid Deployment Teams comprising of consular staff and Red Cross psychosocial experts were sent to Tunisia to assist those affected. We worked with the tour operators to help those families who wished to return to the UK. Some of the injured and the 30 deceased were repatriated back to the UK using military assets. The next of kin were offered support via Police Family Liaison Officers. This support was offered through our Exceptional Assistance Measures policy (EAM) which we have the discretion to use in extremis after a terrorist attack.The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) established an ad hoc Ministerial Committee, supported by a Joint Unit based in the FCO, to coordinate Government assistance to British nationals affected over the longer term. The Committee has oversight of arrangements for a fitting memorial service, a physical memorial, compensation and a programme to provide support for those experiencing difficulties with mental health. We have partnerships with victim support organisations in England, Wales and Scotland to refer bereaved families to specialist support, and have a dedicated support page with further information on GOV.UK.

Colombia: Paramilitary Forces

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to the Colombian government on steps to tackle paramilitary groups in the Nariño region of the country.

Mr Hugo Swire: I am concerned about the continued negative influence of organised criminal gangs and resulting violence in Colombia, which challenges the implementation of the peace process. I am pleased to see that the Colombian Minister of Defence announced that tackling organised crime is a top priority for the Government of Colombia in 2016.British Embassy officials in Bogota regularly discuss the challenges posed by armed criminal groups (so called ‘Bandas Criminales’ or BACRIM) in their meetings with the Colombian government. Our Ambassador to Colombia met the Minister of Interior on 1 February when they discussed security challenges, including those posed by the BACRIM. In forthcoming meetings with the Minister of Defence and Minister of Post-Conflict, the Ambassador will seek to raise these issues again. We are also contributing £1m to the MAPP-OAS (the Organisation of American States’ Peace mission) which is monitoring demobilisation.On 1 February, President Santos created a committee to tackle organised criminal groups. He has ordered the military to intensify operations to prevent criminal groups stepping into a vacuum created by demobilising FARC units. He also stated that new ‘special forces’ will be created, including joint operations and intelligence. This new strategy will be accompanied by social programmes and aims to benefit communities in Colombia.

Colombia: Peace Negotiations

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the likelihood of the Colombia Peace Agreement being reached on 23 March 2016; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Hugo Swire: Talks continue in Havana and both sides are working to meet the 23 March deadline. However, the priority is reaching a sustainable agreement, not the exact date. As President Santos himself has said “If it’s two days after, or one day before, or a week later, it doesn’t matter.”

Colombia: Peace Negotiations

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the likelihood of a bilateral ceasefire in Colombia as a result of a final peace agreement being signed; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Hugo Swire: President Juan Manuel Santos announced in October 2015, that the Government was prepared to declare a bilateral ceasefire on completion of point 5 of the agenda ‘end of conflict’, which is still being negotiated in Havana. However, he said repeatedly that the FARC must first agree to lay down their weapons and give up their armed struggle before a ceasefire is declared.On 25 January, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2261, drafted by the United Kingdom. The resolution establishes a Special Political Mission, to monitor and verify the ceasefire between the Government of Colombia and the FARC.

India: Religious Hatred

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has made representations on anti-Muslim violence in India to the government of that country.

Mr Hugo Swire: The Prime Minister, my right hon Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) discussed religious tolerance in India with Prime Minister Modi on 12 November. Mr Modi reassured the British government that he remained committed to diversity and fundamental freedoms. Mr Modi was clear in his commitment to and respect for India’s core values of tolerance and fundamental rights, as well as reaffirming the importance of social harmony and inclusive development. I also discussed concerns about religious tolerance with the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh on 5 November.

Terrorism: British Nationals Abroad

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what progress the Government has made on the establishment of a memorial to UK citizens killed in terrorist attacks overseas; and what consultation the Government is undertaking with families of victims about that proposal.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: On 22 January I launched an online consultation seeking views on what form the national memorial to British victims of overseas terrorism should take (Official Report, 22 January 2016, col 47WS). The consultation is open until 4 March 2016. I have written to families of victims for whom the Government hold contact details. I have also issued an open letter available on gov.uk to invite all those with an interest to respond to the consultation should they wish to. Decisions on the memorial will be taken after we have fully considered responses to the consultation.

Niranjan Rasalingam

Paul Scully: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the government of Burma on the detention of Niranjan Rasalingam.

Mr Hugo Swire: The British Embassy in Rangoon has provided consular assistance to Mr Rasalingam Niranjan since 1 December 2014 when it was established that Mr Niranjan had been detained. That same month we raised the late notification of Mr Niranjan’s arrest in a Note Verbale and reminded the then Burmese government of their obligations under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. In May 2015 the Ambassador re-stated our interest in the case, raised concerns about Mr Niranjan’s health and the progress of his legal cases. A further Note Verbale was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in January 2016 re-stating our interest in the case and concern about its progress.

Nnamdi Kanu

Ms Harriet Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the letter from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State to the right hon. Member for Camberwell and Peckham of 16 November 2015, whether British consular officials in Nigeria have made a further visit to Nnamdi Kanu.

James Duddridge: Consular officials in Nigeria have visited Mr Kanu a number of times since his arrest, most recently on 3 February.

Giulio Regini

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations his Department has made to the government of (a) Italy and (b) Egypt on the case of Giulio Regini.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: We are aware of the tragic death of Mr Regini, an Italian national, following his disappearance on 25 January and pass our condolences to his friends and family at this difficult time. We support Italian and Egyptian efforts to investigate into the circumstances of his death.

Northern Ireland Office

Terrorism: Northern Ireland

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment she has made of allegations arising from documents stolen from RUC offices in Castlereagh in 2002 relating to the Shankill Road bombing in 1993; and if she will make a statement.

Mrs Theresa Villiers: The previous Government initiated an inquiry into the implications falling from the loss of information from Castlereagh police station. This was conducted by Sir John Chilcot. The report made recommendations about how to avoid any similar incidents happening in the future. In relation to allegations made about the Shankill bombing, responsibility for the murder of nine people in this attack, and injury to many others, rests with the terrorists who carried it out. It is also the case that the Chief Constable has stated that he believes that the RUC had no knowledge of the attack which could have enabled them to prevent it.

Police Service of Northern Ireland: Finance

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if the Government will provide additional funding for the Police Service of Northern Ireland to deal with legacy issues.

Mrs Theresa Villiers: Matters relating to policing and justice are devolved to the Northern Ireland Executive. As a consequence, responsibility for funding policing and justice in Northern Ireland (including for Troubles-related issues) rests with the Northern Ireland Executive.The budget for the Northern Ireland Executive includes funding from Her Majesty’s Treasury in accordance with its funding policy. The funding the Executive receives per capita from the UK Government is more than any other region or country in the UK - 25% above the UK average. All devolved allocation and spending decisions are a matter for the Executive.Through the Stormont House and Fresh Start Agreements, the UK Government has undertaken to provide financial packages giving the Executive up to £2.5 billion of additional spending power. This includes an additional £150 million to support the proposed new institutions to deal with the past.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Employment Tribunals Service: Fines

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many financial penalties have been imposed on respondent employers under section 16 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013; and how many such penalties (a) have been paid and (b) remain unpaid.

Nick Boles: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 26 January 2016.The correct answer should have been:

Eleven financial penalties have been imposed on employers for aggravated breach of employment law, under section 16 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, since its introduction on 6 April 2014. To date, four penalties have been paid and seven remain unpaid. Enforcement action is currently being considered for the outstanding penalties.Twelve financial penalties have been imposed on employers for aggravated breach of employment law, under section 16 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, since its introduction on 6 April 2014. To date, six penalties have been paid and six remain unpaid. Enforcement action is currently being considered for the outstanding penalties.

Nick Boles: Eleven financial penalties have been imposed on employers for aggravated breach of employment law, under section 16 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, since its introduction on 6 April 2014. To date, four penalties have been paid and seven remain unpaid. Enforcement action is currently being considered for the outstanding penalties.Twelve financial penalties have been imposed on employers for aggravated breach of employment law, under section 16 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, since its introduction on 6 April 2014. To date, six penalties have been paid and six remain unpaid. Enforcement action is currently being considered for the outstanding penalties.

Students: Loans

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of the average period of time which (a) male and (b) female student podiatrists who enter training at the age of (i) 19, (ii) 25 and (iii) 30 in 2017-18 will take to pay off their student loans taking into account changes to the student support system from 2016-17.

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of the average period of time which (a) male and (b) female student radiographers who enter training at the age of (i) 19, (ii) 25 and (iii) 30 in 2017-18 will take to pay off their student loans taking into account changes to the student support system from 2016-17.

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of the average period of time which (a) male and (b) female midwives who enter training at the age of (i) 19, (ii) 25, (iii) 30 and (iv) 40 in 2017-18 will take to pay off their student loans taking into account changes to the student support system from 2016-17.

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of the average period of time which (a) male and (b) female nurses who enter training at the age of (i) 19, (ii) 25, (iii) 30 and (iv) 40 in 2017-18 will take to pay off their student loans in line with those changes to the student support system in place from 2016-17.

Joseph Johnson: The changes announced at the Spending Review will enable us to lift the cap on the number of students on nursing courses and will provide nursing students with access to around 25% additional financial support. We expect this reform will enable universities to provide up to 10,000 additional nursing, midwifery and allied health training places over this Parliament.The average repayment term on student loans is calculated for the total full time student population, rather than separately for students taking certain courses or their age on starting their course. On this basis, we estimate that the average repayment term for a full time student entering Higher Education in 2017-18 is around 20 to 25 years.This estimate includes both borrowers who fully repay their loans and those who have loans written off due to death, disability leading to permanent inability to work, or reaching the end of the repayment term. The estimate takes into account the changes to student finance announced at Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.

Living Wage

Joanna  Cherry: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make it his policy to include the new wage rate recommendations published annually by the Low Pay Commission in calculation of the national living wage.

Nick Boles: The independent Low Pay Commission will recommend future National Living Wage rates as well as continuing its current role in recommending National Minimum Wage rates.

Minimum Wage

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effects of confidentiality agreements between employers not paying the national minimum wage and their employees challenging that non-payment on the numbers of people coming forward to make a complaint to ACAS.

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many calls were made to (a) the Pay and Work Rights Helpline and (b) ACAS reporting non-payment of the National Minimum Wage by sector in each of the last five years.

Nick Boles: Final approved answer for 2016/02785 No assessment has been made on the impact of confidentiality agreements on the identification of National Minimum Wage (NMW) non-compliance.Confidentiality is an important protection for workers who wish to make a NMW complaint. If any worker is concerned they have not received what they are entitled to they should contact the ACAS helpline on 0300 123 1100 for free and confidential advice. HMRC follow up every complaint referred to them by Acas and compliance officers can investigate without knowledge of the complainant’s identity. In addition to complaint-led work HMRC investigate employers using third-party intelligence and risk-based targeted enforcement in sectors and areas where there is a higher risk of workers being paid below the NMW.The Government is committed to cracking down on employers who break NMW law. Between April 2015 and November 2015 HMRC took action against over 500 businesses, identifying over £8 million for 46,000 workers. This is already the largest amount of arrears identified in any single year since the introduction of the NMW.Building on existing reforms, the Prime Minister announced on 1 September 2015 further measures to strengthen the enforcement of the NMW including higher penalties, a dedicated HMRC team to tackle the most serious cases of wilful non-compliance and additional funding for HMRC from April 2016. We have also increased communications so that working people can access support to make complaints in confidence if needed Table 1: NMW enquiries to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline by trade sector, 2009/10 to 2014/15.Trade Sector2009/1032010/112011/122012/132013/142014/15Activities of households as employers202040202010Admin/Office work2,5304,4103,9102,9503,3102,390Agriculture and related activities140100120100110100Cleaning services440400350320420320Construction and related trades1,3501,2901,0507601,010810Education and teaching270370350300540450Food processing and packaging904050203030Hairdressing1,6701,5201,3609301,040730Health, social work and child care1,5901,7501,5901,4302,0901,930Hospitality1,8801,5801,5601,4001,7801,340Information technology and communication150170180120240150Modelling, entertainment, recreation90901108016050Other manufacturing240200150140140120Security services240170140120150110Shellfish gathering------Taxi/minicab services604030303020Textiles301020208030Training Provider----7070Transport (other than Taxi/mini-cab)350380280270440260Warehousing, storage and distribution490440420340360310Wholesale and retail trade1,5801,5601,5501,1501,470930Other4,9803,8802,5901,9802,7802,210Not Known3,5802,1905,0205,3505,2107,180Total21,70020,60020,90017,80021,50019,500Source: Pay and Workers Rights Helpline and the Acas HelplineNotes:Calls to the helpline are in part driven by NMW policy announcements and communications activity.Sector level figures are rounded to the nearest 10, totals are rounded to the nearest 100.Reporting years are based on April to March, with the exception of 2009/10 as the Helpline opened in May 2009. Since the 1st April 2015, the Acas Helpline has, in addition to its usual services, been answering queries previously handled by the Pay and Work Rights Helpline. Provisional in-year data for 2015/16 show there have been 9,800 queries relating to NMW legislation to the Acas Helpline and 3,700 queries relating to non-payment/deductions from NMW. Information on the number of NMW enquiries by trade sector is not collected on a comparable basis as Acas do not ask callers to disclose information about the sector worked in. Therefore, Acas only record this information when a caller chooses to provide it. Table 1: The number of NMW related calls received by Acas, 2011/12 to 2015/16.Query topic2011/122012/132013/142014/152015/164NMW4,4003,8003,8004,4009,800Non-Payment/Deductions from NMW2,0002,5002,9003,1003,700Source: AcasNotesFigures are rounded to the nearest 100.One call may be counted as both a ‘NMW’ and ‘Non-payment/Deductions from NMW’ issue. A caller may enquire about the NMW rates and then raise a NMW underpayment issue therefore these categories should not be added together as it will involve double counting.For years earlier than 2015/16, a proportion of calls would have been referred to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline.Reporting years are based on April to March, with the exception of 2015/16 which covers April 2015 to January 2016, the latest period for which information is available.

Employment: Telephone Services

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the reduction in numbers of complaints made to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline since 2010.

Nick Boles: No assessment has been made of the reasons for the reduction in the number of complaints made to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline since 2010.Since 1 April 2015, the Acas Helpline has, in addition to its usual services, been answering queries previously handled by the Pay and Work Rights Helpline. No formal assessment has been made at this time of the outcomes for workers, but we continue to work closely with Acas and four enforcement bodies to ensure the service is bedding in effectively and delivering the right outcomes for the public.

Lasers

Oliver Dowden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 25 January 2016 to Question 23018, what steps he is taking to limit the availability of laser pens.

Anna Soubry: I refer to my answer of 25 January. I have asked my officials as a first step to request an urgent update from Trading Standards on their recent market surveillance activities. I am aware that Leicester Trading Standards recently seized 1,500 unsafe laser pens at point of entry and the importer agreed to destroy them. In addition RAPEX (the European electronic notification platform for the notifying and removal of dangerous consumer products) statistics show 98 different types of laser pointers were removed from the EU market and of these 9 different products were notified by UK market surveillance authorities.

General Product Safety Regulations 2005

Oliver Dowden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 25 January 2016 to Question 23018, what steps he is taking to enforce the General Product Safety Regulations 2005.

Anna Soubry: Consumer products such as laser pens intended for use by consumers are regulated under The General Product Safety Regulations 2005. BIS is responsible for the legislation but it is enforced by Local Authority Trading Standards Services. Under the rules, Trading Standards Officers have a range of powers available to them with regards enforcement of the legislation such as requirements to mark or to warn, or to issue withdrawal or recall notices. They also have the power to prosecute traders. This is a well-established regime that has seen many hundreds of dangerous products taken off the market including laser pens.

Lasers: Imports

Oliver Dowden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 25 January 2016 to Question 23018, on lasers: regulation, what steps he is taking to restrict direct sale into the UK to individual customers.

Anna Soubry: I refer to my answer of 25 January. Under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 and the General Product Safety Regulations, a business importing into the EU/EEA must have a representative within the EU/EEA who is responsible and liable for the safety of imported goods. This enables Customs and Trading Standards to check that imported laser products comply with safety standards. It is harder for them to carry out these checks where customers order goods from a company outside the EU and receive them directly through the post. We therefore advise customers who want to buy laser products to go to a reputable dealer with authorised representation in the European Union. If consumers are concerned about the safety of laser products on sale they should report the website or retailer to their local Trading Standards department.

Illegal Money Lending Team: Finance

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2016 to Question 24171, what funding the Illegal Money Lending Team received in each of the last five years; and how much it will receive in each year until it becomes funded through a levy.

Nick Boles: Annual funding for the Illegal Money Lending Teams as reported to the Department by National Trading Standards was:YearEnglandWales2015/16 *£3,097,822£546,6742014/15£3,605,286£634,0162013/14£3,716,789£673,6252012/13£3,716,789£595,6702011/12**£3,716,789£653,625* * Additionally, for 2015/16 the FCA agreed to outsource work to a maximum of £880,000, split £748,000 to the England Team and £132,000 to the Wales Team. The FCA will outsource work to a maximum of £500,000 for 2016/17.** Until the creation of NTS in April 2012, the teams were funded directly by BIS.BIS has committed to maintaining its funding of the teams at 2015/16 year levels for 2016/17. It is anticipated that levy funding will be in place from 2017/18.

Written Questions: Government Responses

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when his Department plans to answer Questions 25349, 25350, 25505, 25506, 25604, tabled on 2 February 2016 and Question 24982, tabled on 1 February 2016.

Joseph Johnson: I have replied to the hon Member.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: Pay

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the average pay is of (a) men and (b) women working in his Department.

Joseph Johnson: This information is published by the Office for National Statistics for all departments on an annual basis. The latest publication date was 8 October 2015. Detailed breakdowns of mean and median salaries for both men and women (including within BIS) are contained in the Civil Service Statistics 2015 Statistical Bulletin Tables (tables 24 to 35), available here: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-414427

EU Grants and Loans: Greater London

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much funding from the (a) European Regional Development Fund and (b) European Social Fund was spent in (i) London and (ii) each London borough in each year from 2010 to 2015.

Anna Soubry: The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF) are administered in London by the Greater London Authority. Annual allocations are set out in the London ERDF Operational Programme 2007-2013 and London ESF Regional Framework 2011-2013 which can be found on the Greater London Authority’s website. The allocations could be spent up to the end of 2015. Allocations were not broken down for each London borough but a full list of projects funded by ERDF can be found also on the Greater London Authority’s website. A list of projects funded by ESF can be found under ESF funding for London on the Department for Work and Pensions website on gov.uk.

EU Grants and Loans: Greater London

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much funding from the (a) European Regional Development Fund and (b) European Social Fund he forecasts will be spent in (i) London and (ii) each London borough in each year from 2016 and 2020.

Anna Soubry: The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF) are administered in London by the Greater London Authority and will respond to priorities set out in the European Structural and Investment Strategy prepared by the London Enterprise Panel and other local partners. The Strategy updated in February 2016 sets out the amounts to be spent in London from ERDF and ESF and can be found on the London Enterprise Panel website.

EU Grants and Loans: Greater London

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the number of jobs that will be created as a result of funding from the European Structural and Investment Funds spent in London between 2016 and 2020.

Anna Soubry: Information on the number of jobs that will be created from the European Structural and Investment (ESI) Funds spent in London in the 2014-2020 programming period is set out in the ESI Funds strategy prepared by the London Enterprise Panel and other local partners which can be found on the London Enterprise Panel website.

Small Businesses: Living Wage

Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what support his Department plans to make available to small companies operating in deprived areas to help meet the costs of the introduction of the living wage; and if he will make a statement.

Nick Boles: The Government has introduced measures to help businesses with the transition to the new National Living Wage. The Government is reducing corporation tax to 18% by 2020, setting the Annual Investment Allowance at a new permanent level of £200,000, and increasing the Employment Allowance from £2,000 to £3,000. The increase in the Employment Allowance means a business could employ four people on the National Living Wage and pay no National Insurance Contributions. It will benefit up to 590,000 employers and take up to 90,000 firms out of National Insurance Contributions altogether. These measures will help small businesses across the country.

Department for International Development

Overseas Aid

Stephen Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2016 to Question 24173 between 2015-16 and 2019-20, to which other government departments and cross-government funds her Department plans to transfer, the amounts referred to in table 2.7 on page 85 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.

Mr Desmond Swayne: As set out in DFID’s settlement letter from HM Treasury, over the Spending Review period, DFID plans to transfer the amounts referred to in table 2.7 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 to the following government departments and cross-government funds: Conflict, Stability & Security FundDepartment for Business, Innovation & SkillsDepartment for Culture, Media & SportDepartment of Energy & Climate ChangeDepartment for Environment, Food & Rural AffairsDepartment of HealthForeign & Commonwealth OfficeHer Majesty’s Revenue & CustomsHome OfficeOffice for National StatisticsProsperity Fund

Yemen: Overseas Aid

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent steps her Department has taken to allow aid to enter and be distributed throughout Yemen without restriction.

Mr Desmond Swayne: Improving access into and within Yemen for commercial goods and humanitarian aid is one of the UK’s top priorities. We have consistently called on all parties to improve commercial access for essential imports of food, fuel and medical supplies; facilitate rapid, safe and unhindered access to all people in need; and safeguard major access routes and key infrastructure in Yemen, including airports, sea ports and fuel distribution sites.In addition, we fund agencies and NGOs who have the best access and ability to deliver humanitarian aid. In addition, we have provided:£1 million to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), who broker humanitarian access for the international response.£1 million to the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) to provide an air bridge into Yemen for humanitarian staff and essential medical supplies.£1.42 million for the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM) to improve supply of essential goods into Yemen.

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

Mike Kane: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development on the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, 12 January 2016, Official Report, column 248WH, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the Global Fund is addressing concentrated epidemics among key populations in middle income countries.

Mr Nick Hurd: The UK is a key supporter of the Global Fund and pledged up to £1 billion between 2014 and 2016, subject to a 10% donor share cap. Approximately 50% of Global Fund resources are directed to Middle Income Countries (MICs) and the UK has asked the Global Fund to focus more heavily on marginalised groups in MICs where they do invest.The UK is working with the Global Fund and other partners to encourage MICs to develop their own self-financed programmes to combat concentrated epidemics, ensuring that investments are effectively reaching key populations and holding national governments to account so that vulnerable groups are not left behind.

Department for Education

Secondary Education: Greater London

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase secondary school places in London.

Nick Gibb: Local authorities are responsible for planning and securing sufficient school places in their area, and supporting them to do so is one of this Government’s top priorities. This is why the Government is investing £23 billion overall in school buildings to create 600,000 new school places, open 500 new free schools and address essential maintenance needs.Basic need funding is allocated to local authorities to help them to create new school places. This Government has allocated £960 million to local authorities in London for places needed between 2015 and 2018, including at secondary level. This is in addition to the £2 billion London received between 2011 and 2015, almost 40% of the total funding provided to local authorities to help create new places in this period.This funding has helped to create 155,000 new school places between 2010 and 2014. Of these new places, over 30,000 have been created in 52 open free schools. There are over 60 approved new schools due to open in London in future academic years.

Children: Day Care

Teresa Pearce: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to consult with (a) nurseries and (b) other stakeholders on the development of the childcare workforce strategy.

Mr Sam Gyimah: The government has committed to develop a workforce strategy in 2016 and remains committed to engage with stakeholders in the sector on elements of the strategy. We regularly speak at conferences to talk about the workforce. It is our intention to consult with a range of stakeholders, including early years providers such as nurseries, and we are currently considering the best course of action to pursue this.

Primary Education: Free School Meals

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department plans to publish the small schools taskforce's report on the support needed for small schools for universal infant free school meals provision.

Mr Sam Gyimah: The majority of the findings from the small schools taskforce report are already in the public domain following the publication of the toolkit for small schools which is available at http://www.thegreatschoollunch.co.uk/media/169570/CFT-SmallSchoolToolkit.pdf

Academies: Sponsorship

John Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Members of the House of Lords are sponsors of academies in England.

Edward Timpson: A list of approved academy sponsors is published by the Department for Education on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academy-sponsor-contact-list. A hard copy provided at attachment 1.The Department does not specifically collect information about the involvement of members of the House of Lords in academy sponsorship.



List of approved academy sponsors
(Excel SpreadSheet, 97.36 KB)

Burnley Road Academy: Risk Management

Ian Mearns: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what financial support the Risk Protection Arrangement has offered to Burnley Road Academy in Cumbria; and what assessment she has made of the extent to which that scheme has reimbursed the losses incurred by academy trusts as a result of flooding.

Edward Timpson: The Department’s Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) will cover all storm related costs incurred by Burnley Road academy in Calderdale, including the costs of temporary accommodation while the original building is reinstated.The RPA will similarly cover all costs incurred by academy trusts who are members of the RPA as a result of flooding, in accordance with the RPA membership rules. It is too early to assess the total cost to RPA of these losses, since claims are still being reported, evaluated and settled. As at January 27, a £3.7 million reserve total for RPA claims has so far been identified to cover losses as a result of recent storms.

Schools: Admissions

Mr Jonathan Lord: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress she has made on amending the School Admissions Code to ensure that summer born children can (a) be admitted to reception at  the age of five if this is in line with their parents' wishes and (b) remain with that cohort as they progress through their education.

Nick Gibb: Subject to parliamentary approval, the Department for Education has decided to amend the School Admissions Code to support summer born children who are not ready to start school at the usual age. This will delay entry to reception year until they are five years old and enables those children to remain with that cohort as they progress through school. We want to make these changes as soon as possible; however, we are taking this opportunity to consider what other changes it would be appropriate to make to the Code at the same time. We will be conducting a full public consultation in due course.

Work Experience: South East

Mr Jonathan Lord: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the proportion of students who left school with work experience in (a) Woking constituency, (b) Surrey and (c) the South East in each year since 2010.

Nick Boles: The Department does not collect data on the proportion of students that have left secondary education having undertaken a work experience placement.Most students aged 16-19 benefit from work experience to inform career choices, develop the relevant occupational skills and help instil the attitudes and behaviours expected at work. Work experience can take many forms including work tasters, participation in social action projects, or a work placement.

English Baccalaureate: GCSE

Mr Jonathan Lord: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of students sat the EBacc at GCSE in (a) Woking constituency, (b) Surrey and (c) England in each year since 2010.

Nick Gibb: Information on the proportion of students entered for the EBacc since 2010 is published at local authority, regional and national level in the “GCSE and equivalent results in England: statistical first release” series[1]. Parliamentary constituency level information is not available.A list of qualifications which count towards the English Baccalaureate is available on the school performance tables’ website.[2][1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-gcses-key-stage-4[2] http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/secondary_14/English_Baccalaureate_list_of_qualifications_July_2015.xls

Schools: South East

Mr Jonathan Lord: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of students are taught in schools rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding in (a) Woking constituency, (b) Surrey and (c) the South East.

Nick Gibb: In the South East, 81% of pupils were taught in good or outstanding school as of 31 August 2015.Within the Local Authority area of Surrey, 89% of pupils were taught in good or outstanding schools.In the Woking constituency, 87% of pupils were taught in good or outstanding schools.This data is based on the most recent section five Ofsted inspection of all open schools as at 31 August 2015. The data includes the most recent judgements for predecessor schools of academy converters which have not yet been inspected as an academy. The data can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/exploring-ofsted-inspection-data-with-data-view

Food: Hygiene

Mr David Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to improve food hygiene safety in schools, children's clubs and nurseries that failed to meet satisfactory standards in inspections last year.

Mr Sam Gyimah: Local authorities are responsible for food hygiene inspections of schools, children’s clubs and nurseries at which food is served regularly to children. Food hygiene legislation requires these premises to be registered as food businesses. The Food Standards Agency, which sets policy for and monitors enforcement of food safety legislation by local authorities, has advised that approximately 99% of educational establishments and caring establishments, including schools, children’s clubs and nurseries, have satisfactory or better food hygiene standards.Local authorities work with food businesses to make improvements in any premises that fail to meet satisfactory standards during inspections and may take a range of enforcement actions as considered appropriate in the circumstances of each case. The honourable member for Bolton North East or members of his constituency may contact the relevant local authority or the Food Standards Agency for detailed information about specific premises that are of concern to him.

Children: Disadvantaged

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the quality of early education and childcare available to disadvantaged children.

Mr Sam Gyimah: The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards for the provision of learning, development and care for children from birth to age five. The EYFS helps early years providers to prepare young children for school and improve their life chances by delivering high quality early education.The most recent EYFS Profile results show that the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers has narrowed - 51% of children eligible for free school meals (FSM) achieved a good level of development (GLD) in 2015 compared to 45% in 2014. This is the equivalent of an extra 5,800 children eligible for FSM achieving a GLD.We want all children, regardless of their starting point, to have access to high quality early education and childcare, as we know this is what makes the difference to outcomes. To help close the gap between disadvantaged children and their better off peers we introduced the early learning programme for two-year-olds in September 2013. Around 160,000 of our most disadvantaged two-year-olds are already benefiting.We have also introduced the Early Years Pupil Premium, worth £50 million a year. This provides nurseries and schools delivering the early education entitlement with an extra 53p an hour for disadvantaged three and four year olds to help them close the gap in school readiness.

Pre-school Education: Standards

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve the quality of early years education.

Mr Sam Gyimah: The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards for the provision of learning, development and care for children from birth to age five, which all early years providers must follow. All three- and four-year-olds are entitled to 15 hours a week of quality early education, free of charge, to prepare them for school and improve their life chances. 94% of three- and 99% of four-year-olds are taking up the current free entitlement.The latest Early Years Foundation Stage Profile data reveal that an increasing proportion of children are achieving a good level of development at age five: 66% in 2015, compared to 52% in 2013. This is an impressive increase in the last two years.The quality of the workforce is key to the quality of early years provision and to the positive outcomes it delivers for children’s long term life chances. In group full day care settings, 87% of the workforce has a relevant qualification at level 3. Many of the workforce are qualified beyond level 3. Since 2007, over 16,000 individuals have achieved Early Years Professional Status and Early Years Teacher Status.We will continue to grow a high quality workforce to drive improvement across the sector through our Workforce Strategy. The strategy will consider how career progression in the sector can be improved to attract and retain quality staff and how effective continuing professional development can help settings to deliver the best quality provision they can.The government is committed to supporting parents with high childcare costs and is investing in childcare at record levels. By 2019-20 we will be spending more than £6 billion on early years and childcare. The Childcare Bill is delivering the government’s election manifesto commitment to giving families where parents are working an entitlement to 30 hours of free childcare for their three- and four-year-olds.

Teachers: Training

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the financial viability of education providers offering PGCE qualifications.

Nick Gibb: For all new School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) providers there is a rigorous accreditation process which includes a financial and governance review of the lead school encompassing financial accounts and forecasts and governance arrangements. If successful, the new SCITT is awarded accreditation by the Secretary of State. In Academic Year 2015/16 there were 41 new SCITT providers who commenced operations.As part of the December annual school return process all Local Authority SCITT providers are required to produce an audited income/expenditure statement and balance sheet.For Academy based SCITT providers, the Education Funding Agency obtain financial health information from the audited academy trust, financial statements by 31 December and their budget returns by 31 July each year. The financial statements include independent audit opinions and regularity reports, which provide assurance that the trust has used funds appropriately and report any instances of financial concerns. The financial information is assessed and where appropriate instances of trusts at potential risk are asked to prepare and submit a recovery plan.Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) receiving PGCE bursary funding are regulated through HEFCE and therefore the responsibility of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. There is a Memorandum of Understanding in place with HEFCE so that if there any financial viability issues with HEIs, these are notified and considered by the National College for Teaching and Leadership.

Teachers: Training

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many English and History PGCE course places were offered in England in each of the last five years.

Nick Gibb: Eligible schools, school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) providers and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) will be able to recruit (subject to a limited number of controls) as many trainees as they feel they need – until the overall system has recruited sufficient trainees. For 2016/17 the number of places available for HEIs to recruit (based on the estimate of trainee need calculated using the teacher supply model) can be found on GOV.UK:2016/17 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-itt-recruitment-controlsPrior to 2016/17 we have operated an allocations system for School Direct lead schools, SCITTs and HEIs. For recent years detailed initial and final allocations data for HEIs can be found on GOV.UK:2015/16 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-allocations-for-academic-year-2015-to-20162014/15 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-allocations-for-academic-year-2014-to-20152013/14 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-allocations-for-academic-year-2013-to-2014-finalFor 2012/13 and earlier published allocations data can be found on the national archives: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130423140808/http:/education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/TIM/m002013/index.shtml

Free School Meals

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of how many eligible pupils did not claim free school meals in each of the last three years.

Mr Sam Gyimah: The Department only collects data on those eligible pupils who claim free school meals. To collect the data on pupils who did not claim free school meals could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to include LGBT issues in sex and relationship education in schools.

Edward Timpson: All schools should offer high quality, age-appropriate sex and relationship education (SRE), and build a curriculum that meets the needs of all their students. We expect schools to ensure that young people feel that SRE education is relevant to them.SRE is compulsory in all maintained secondary schools and many primary schools also teach SRE, in an age-appropriate manner. We expect academies and free schools to deliver relationship education as part of their provision of a broad and balanced curriculum. Any school teaching SRE must have regard to the Secretary of State’s SRE guidance.We welcome the supplementary SRE guidance, SRE for the 21st Century, produced by Brook, the PSHE Association and the Sex Education Forum, which includes guidance on ensuring that SRE is inclusive. All children and young people, regardless of background or identity, are entitled to quality SRE that helps them build confidence and stay healthy.

Schools: Admissions

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many civil society groups have raised with her Department concerns over breaches of the school admissions code since 2010.

Nick Gibb: It is the role of the Schools Adjudicator to consider concerns about school admission arrangements. Where a person or body has concerns that a school’s admission arrangements do not comply with the School Admissions Code, they may refer an objection to the Adjudicator. The Adjudicator must consider whether the arrangements comply with the Code and the law relating to admissions. It has only been possible for groups such as civil society organisations to refer objections since 2012.The Schools Adjudicator reports annually to the Secretary of State and this report is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/osa-annual-report

Children's Centres: Closures

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Sure Start centres are due to be closed over the current Parliament.

Mr Sam Gyimah: The Department does not routinely collect data on the number of anticipated children’s centre closures but expects local authorities to fulfil their duties under the Childcare Act 2006 to ensure sufficient children’s centres to meet the needs of local families. Local authorities must consult fully before any significant changes are made to children’s centre services.

Schools: Property Transfer

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2016 to Question 24211, whether it is her policy that former school sites should be retained for potential new school provision in areas of expected new housing growth.

Edward Timpson: The Secretary of State is keen to ensure that education land is used to support the stated priority for the Department in ensuring that there are sufficient good quality school places in the system. In granting consent for any disposal of publicly-funded land, the Secretary of State takes into account whether there is a basic need for additional school places in the area, and whether the land could be used to support an academy or free school. The requirement for the Secretary of State’s consent to dispose of publicly funded land extends to former school sites that have been used as a school within the last 8 years. For former playing field sites, it extends to 10 years.

Schools: Property Transfer

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2016 to Question 24211, whether public health and health inequalities are taken into account in the consideration she gives to an application of dispose of former school playing fields.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2016 to Question 24211, what account she takes of the recreational benefit of maintaining school playing fields when considering a school disposal request.

Edward Timpson: The Education Funding Agency and the Independent School Playing Fields Panel who advise on playing field disposals will look at a range of factors before advising the Secretary of State on disposals, including any reduction in access to playing fields for the school, other local schools and the local community.

Schools: Property Transfer

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2016 to Question 24211, which school sites have been approved or are being considered for disposal in the (a) Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, (b) Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council and (c) Greater Manchester Combined Authority areas.

Edward Timpson: The Secretary of State is currently considering two applications to dispose of school land in the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.Since February 2013, the Secretary of State has approved the following applications to dispose of school land from:Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council:Mossley Hollins High SchoolNew Charter Academy, Silver Springs CampusThomas Ashton Special School (Primary (Hyde) and Secondary Centre Sites)Greater Manchester Combined Authority:Oldhams County Primary SchoolMillwood Primary Special SchoolEwing SchoolAmbrose Barlow High SchoolHarrop Fold High SchoolOur Lady and the Lancashire Martyrs Primary SchoolSeedley Primary SchoolSt Joseph High SchoolTootal Drive Primary SchoolBedford Hall Methodist NurseryInce St Mary’s PrimaryNicole Mere Primary SchoolOakfield High SchoolMarland Fold SchoolAbraham Guest High SchoolNorth Chadderton SchoolSouth Chadderton SchoolFailsworth School

Special Educational Needs

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff were employed by her Department to collate and publish statistical data on children with special educational needs in (a) 2010 and (b) 2015.

Edward Timpson: Department staff were involved in activities covering requirements gathering; technical development and helpdesk facilities to upload data onto Department systems; liaising with school census staff to develop SEN requirements for the school census and monitoring data quality; publishing the statistical first releases in May and July; publishing Special educational needs: an analysis and summary of data sources.It is not possible to calculate the number of full time equivalent staff because it would not include staff employed to collect the school census, which also collects SEN data, as it is difficult to separate out the SEN specific work.The figures for 2010 are not available.

Pre-school Education: Standards

Teresa Pearce: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that provision of high-quality early years education is included in the Government's Life Chances Strategy.

Mr Sam Gyimah: Education plays a significant role in ensuring that children have the best start in life, and this government is committed to supporting families to give children a strong foundation in the earliest years.The Prime Minister made clear in his recent speech that high quality early education will be a key part of the forthcoming Life Chances Strategy. We are working with other government departments to pursue this.

Sparrowdale School

Craig Tracey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she expects the decommissioning of Sparrowdale School to be completed.

Edward Timpson: School playing fields are protected by Section 77 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. Schools and local authorities must obtain the Secretary of State’s approval before they can dispose of their land. Applications to dispose of school playing fields are considered by the independent school playing fields advisory panel, and are approved only when it is demonstrated that the application meets published criteria.The Department is aware of an application by Warwickshire County Council to seek approval to dispose of the former Sparrowdale Special School. The application is currently being processed by officials at the Education Funding Agency; a final decision should be expected in the summer. The application will only be considered when sufficient information is available to consider how the sale proceeds will be invested to benefit other local schools. The Secretary of State will consider the recommendation of the panel before making her final decision.The Department has published a list of decisions since May 2010 on applications for consent to dispose of school playing field land: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-land-decisions-about-disposals

Children: Disability

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 23325, how much specific additional funding her Department has provided to Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission to support their inspection of the effectiveness of local areas in fulfilling their new special educational needs and disabilities duties.

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 23325, whether the data that her Department plans to draw on to determine whether the special educational needs and disabilities provisions of the Children and Families Act 2014 have improved outcomes for children will include data on outcomes achieved by disabled children.

Edward Timpson: Local area inspections will begin in May 2016 and will be completed over the next five years. For this financial year of 2015-16, the Department has allocated £349,087 of funding to Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission to meet the costs of developing this new type of inspection. We intend to provide Ofsted with funding to support this activity over the next five years.The data we will draw on to determine whether the special educational needs and disabilities provisions of the Children and Families Act have improved outcomes for children with special educational needs or a disability will include data on outcomes achieved by disabled children.

Children: Disability

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 23325, whether she has carried out a review since 2014 of whether local authorities are meeting statutory requirements for the content of Education, Health and Care plans.

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 23325, if she will publish the review of Education, Health and Care plans carried out in 2014.

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 23325, how many local authorities received advice from her Department on Education, Health and Care plans that were considered to be non-compliant with statutory requirements in 2015.

Edward Timpson: Since September 2014, Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans have been regularly monitored and reviewed. This is part of the Department’s ongoing work to support and challenge local authorities’ implementation of the reforms to the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) system. The Department also gathers information about EHC plans from parents and young people, through termly surveys of Parent Carer Forums, correspondence, and regular dialogue with parents’ and young people’s groups.Where individual EHC plans are considered not to be fully compliant, advice on how to improve them has been provided directly to the local authorities concerned by the Department’s team of SEND advisors. Thus far, our SEND advisors have noted issues around non-compliance for 29 local authorities, all of which were subsequently given advice about improving their EHC plans in order to fulfil statutory requirementsOur advisors are currently delivering a number of workshops for local authorities on how to write high quality, legally compliant EHC plans, and to share good practice. The training resources from these workshops will be published shortly.There are a number of places where local authorities can find guidance about EHC plans. This includes the statutory SEND Code of Practice, which clearly sets out what must be included in a plan, and provides detailed guidance on the process that must be followed to produce one. There are also examples of good quality EHC plans produced by the SEND Pathfinder local authorities.The review of EHC plans carried out in 2014 looked specifically at EHC plan templates.

Children: Disability

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 26 January 2016 to Question 23324, for what reasons her Department has decided not to publish A-level data split by type of special educational need or to collect additional data on the outcomes achieved by students who have a disability but not an identified special educational need in 2015.

Edward Timpson: The statistical first release Level 2 and 3 attainment by young people aged 19 [1] includes attainment data broken down by School Action, School Action Plus and those with statements of SEN at academic age 15. The 2015 update will be published in April 2016.The Revised A level and other level 3 results in England statistical first release does not currently provide SEN or disability breakdowns but, as part of our reforms to 16-19 accountability measures, we will consider if it is possible to provide these breakdowns at national level in the future.[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/level-2-and-3-attainment-by-young-people-aged-19-in-2014

Secondary Education: Greater London

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will rank secondary schools in each London borough by the proportion of pupils with non-statutory special needs; and what type each such school is.

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will rank primary schools in each London borough by the proportion of pupils with non-statutory special needs; and what type each such school is.

Edward Timpson: The proportion and number of children with non-statutory special needs, identified as ‘SEN support’ in each primary and secondary school, including type of school in London can be calculated from the underlying data of the publication Special educational needs in England: January 2015. This publication can be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2015We have no plans to rank this data.

Arts: English Baccalaureate

Mr David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2016 to Question 24570, if she will make it her policy that creative subjects must be included in the new EBacc.

Nick Gibb: I refer the Honourable Member to my response to PQ 24570, submitted to Parliament on Thursday 4 February 2016, in which I explained that EBacc subjects are part of a broad and balanced curriculum and that there is space in the wider school curriculum to teach other subjects alongside the EBacc subjects.On 3 November 2015 the Secretary of State for Education launched a public consultation seeking views on the government’s proposals for the implementation of the English Baccalaureate. The consultation closed on 29 January 2016 and the government response will be published in the spring.

Children: Day Care

Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of super centres on smaller, privately-funded child care businesses located close to them.

Mr Sam Gyimah: There is a duty on local authorities to judge what provision is appropriate to meet local needs in their areas. An overarching statutory framework places a legal duty on local authorities to have arrangements in place to secure sufficient children’s centres to meet local need and to consult where changes are planned to local children’s centre provision.In deciding what arrangements to make, local authorities must have particular regard to the quality and quantity of early childhood services in the area. Local authorities are best placed to understand local needs and the different ways children and families can be supported locally.

Department for Education: EU Grants and Loans

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the amount of EU funding her Department received in each of the last three years.

Mr Sam Gyimah: For the period December 2013 to July 2015 (2007-2013 European Social Fund programme extended to 2015), £71 million of ring fenced European Social Fund monies was available to provide support for young people aged 14-19 who were not in education, employment or training or, who were at risk of being so. The funding was administered by the Skills Funding Agency on behalf of the Education Funding Agency.

Children: Day Care

Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional funding her Department plans to make available to small childcare facilities to help them meet the costs of the proposed free 30 hours of childcare per week.

Mr Sam Gyimah: As part of the Spending Review in November 2015, we announced that we will be investing over £1billion more per year by 2019-20 to fund the government’s commitments on the early education entitlements. The funding includes £300 million per year for a significant increase to the rate paid for the two, three and four year old entitlements. From April 2017, the national average funding rates will increase to £4.88 for three and four year olds and £5.39 for two year olds. Local authorities are responsible for deciding how to distribute this funding across their area and for setting the rate paid to early years providers.We will introduce a national funding formula for early years so that funding is transparently and fairly matched to need and fairly distributed between different types of providers and different parts of the country. We will be consulting on detailed proposals later this year.

Schools: EU Grants and Loans

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will estimate the number of schools which have been built using EU funds.

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will estimate the number of schools which have received funds from EU sources for improvements or maintenance in the last 10 years.

Edward Timpson: The department does not hold information on the number of schools which have been built using EU funds, nor does it hold information on the number of schools which have received funds from EU sources for improvements or maintenance.

Children in Care

Gavin Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children aged up to three years old were taken into care in the last five years; and what assessment she has made of the reasons why those children were taken into care.

Edward Timpson: The number of children aged 0-3 years, that started to be looked after in the last five years ending 31 March, and the main reason why they entered care, is shown in the table below. This information is for England only.Category of need20112012201320142015Abuse or neglect6,8807,3507,4307,3807,270Child's disability5050605050Parents illness or disability520550480500460Family in acute stress690710740740670Family dysfunction1,4601,5601,7101,8401,730Socially unacceptable behaviour5040707060Low income2020102020Absent parenting260210190150160Total number of looked after children aged 0-3 years, in England9,91010,50010,69010,74010,420Source: SSDA903Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.Only the first occasion on which a child was taken into care in the year has been counted.

Ministry of Justice

Minimum Wage

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time of cases in employment tribunals related to non-payment of the National Minimum Wage was in each of the last five years.

Mr Shailesh Vara: The average clearance time of employment tribunal claims for non-payment of the National Minimum Wage1 in each of the last five years is as shown in Table 1 below:Financial YearAverage time in weeks2010-11432011-12412012-13432013-14322014-1574 source: ET Database February 20161 "Suffer a detriment and/or dismissal related to failure to pay the minimum wage or allow access to records" In 2014-15 we reviewed outstanding cases and removed a backlog of very old cases from the case management system. The overall trend in average clearance time for single cases is improving and this can be seen in the Published Statistics at:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.

National Offender Management Service: Dogs

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the National Offender Management Service's budget was for its allocation of illicit alcohol-detecting dogs in each of the last five years; and how many finds have been made by those dogs in each of those years.

Andrew Selous: There are more than 500 specially trained dogs used within prisons to search prisoners, visitors, prison perimeters and suspicious packages for illicit items, such as drugs, weapons, alcohol and mobile phones. Many dogs are trained so that they can detect a range of contraband rather than one particular substance. The specific combination of capabilities is managed by regional search teams so that dogs can be used most effectively to tackle prevalent risks in that region. For those reasons, it is not possible to allocate a specific budget to dogs who have been trained to detect alcohol. Data on the number of alcohol finds made by dogs is not recorded.

Personal Independence Payment: Appeals

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of personal independence payment appeals were successful in (a) Lancaster and Fleetwood constituency and (b) the UK in each month in 2014 and 2015,

Mr Shailesh Vara: The First-tier Tribunal – Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) administered by HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), hears appeals against Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) decisions on a range of benefits including Personal Independence Payment (PIP). Appeals lodged with the Tribunal are not recorded on a constituency basis, but by the office which dealt with the case. Appellants living in the Lancaster and Fleetwood1 constituency have their appeals heard in one of three SSCS hearing venues: Lancaster, Barrow or Blackpool. The following table provides information on the proportion of PIP appeals which were decided in favour of the appellant in Lancaster, Barrow and Blackpool venues and Great Britain2 each month from January 2014 to September 2015 (the latest period for which figures are available). Percentage of PIP appeals heard by a tribunal found in favour of the appellant3 Lancaster, Barrow, BlackpoolGreat BritainJanuary 2014~15%February 20140%13%March 201433%41%April 201450%36%May 2014~28%June 20140%37%July 201438%46%August 201480%38%September 20140%43%October 201467%50%November 201429%50%December 201470%52%January 201546%53%February 201560%53%March 201560%52%April 201528%55%May 201531%55%June 201543%59%July 201557%57%August 201554%61%September 201543%61%   [1] Note: SSCS data are recorded by the office that dealt with the case, and if the case went to oral hearing, the location of the Tribunal hearing is normally the hearing venue nearest to the appellant’s home address. Data cannot be retrieved based on the appellant’s actual address but can be produced detailing the numbers of cases that were dealt with at one of our Regional centres or heard at a specific venue.[2] HMCTS administer appeals received from appellants living in England, Scotland and Wales. The Appeals Service, part of the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service, administers appeals from appellants living in Northern Ireland.[3] Some of the percentages for Lancaster, Barrow and Blackpool are based on very low volumes and so can be volatile and should be treated with caution. The symbol ~ advises no appeals cleared at tribunal. Note: Cleared at tribunal hearing excludes those cases disposed of without the need of a hearing (i.e. decisions retrospectively superseded by the First-Tier Agencies and those stuck out or withdrawn prior to hearing)Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and are the best data available.The data may differ slightly to that of the published stats as these data were run on a different date.

Personal Injury: Compensation

Karl McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will take steps to end the offering of compensation in personal injury claims when there is no medical evidence.

Karl McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the effect of third party capture on motor insurance premiums.

Dominic Raab: The Government is determined to crack down on fraud and the compensation culture. The Government recognises that offers to settle made to claimants without medical evidence may encourage opportunistic and fraudulent claims. The Government introduced new court rules in October 2014 to discourage such offers and we continue to keep the matter of third party capture, including the impacts on motor premiums, under review.

Legal Aid Scheme: Contracts

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Written Statement of 28 January 2016, WS499, how much the Government spent on work on the criminal legal aid tendering process before deciding not to go ahead with that process.

Mr Shailesh Vara: This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Witnesses: Children

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what training is available for judges and barristers to assist them when questioning child witnesses in cases involving sexual offences.

Mr Shailesh Vara: Judicial training is a judicial matter and fulfilled by the Judicial College, which reports to the Lord Chief Justice. Training for barristers is a matter for their own professional bodies. The Judicial College have advised me that a workshop on the cross examination of vulnerable witnesses is incorporated into their Serious Sexual Offences Seminar. This is mandatory training for all judges who have been authorised to hear cases involving serious sexual offences.

Police and Crime Commissioners

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his policy is on moving responsibility for the courts, youth justice and probation to police and crime commissioners.

Mr Shailesh Vara: As set out in the 2015 manifesto, the government is committed to further developing the role of locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs). We have already brought forward legislation to enable PCCs to take responsibility for fire services in their area where a local case is made. As the Home Secretary said recently, PCCs have brought real benefits to policing since their introduction in 2011. The Ministry of Justice and the Home Office are exploring whether their role as locally elected individuals could bring further benefits to the wider criminal justice system, local communities and, most importantly, the victims of crime.

Custodial Treatment: Fires

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many fires there have been in each prison and youth facility in each month since May 2010.

Andrew Selous: Information on the number of fires there have been in each prison and youth facility in each month since May 2010 is recorded in attached excel document PQ26250 Annex 1. The reporting of fire incidents has significantly improved, which has led to a greater number being reported in 2015. The total number of fire incidents recorded in table 1 below refer to those in England and Wales recorded on the NOMS Incident Reporting System. They include accidental and deliberately set fires and those where the cause is unknown. Total Number of Fires.  20052006200720082009201020112012201320142015Jan82100778511473847898110102Feb768010392685573829770122Mar84849387986275998392144Apr978989817269708194113159May9789998165868684102125150Jun1081007782866891877494176Jul891018410476848290123119181Aug899910479751028980114134195Sep7393100831068572778182190Oct946487907573656998103180Nov10291809092828511482101156Dec758789766968866310493180Total10661077942103094690711111004115012361935 



Number of Fires in each month since May 2010
(Excel SpreadSheet, 167.5 KB)

G4S

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, 26 January 2016, Official Report, column 146, when the Parliamentary Under-Secretary plans to write to the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley, on breaches of contracts and fines at G4S-run establishments.

Andrew Selous: I committed to write to the honorable lady on this point at the latest Justice Orals. The Ministry of Justice are currently considering the honorable lady’s question and I will provide her with a written response shortly.

Magistrates' Courts: Closures

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has decided which magistrates' courts are to be closed; and when he expects to announce that decision.

Mr Shailesh Vara: I announced the outcome of the consultation on the provision of court and tribunal estate in England and Wales on 11 February 2016. Copies of consultation documents are available online at www.gov.uk/moj.

Prime Minister

Peers

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Prime Minister, if he will review how effectively smaller political parties are represented in the House of Lords so as to inform the next recommendations he plans to make for appointments to that House.

Mr David Cameron: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Newport West (Mr Flynn) on 3 June 2015, UIN 102.

Public Sector: Procurement

Richard Burden: To ask the Prime Minister, which department is responsible for bringing forward proposals to (a) revise a procurement policy note to public authorities on the relationship of their procurement policies to UK foreign policy and (b) change investment rights of the Local Government Pension Scheme; and what representations he has received on bringing forward such proposals.

Mr David Cameron: Responsibility for public procurement policy rests with the Crown Commercial Service, an executive agency of the Cabinet Office. Responsibility for the Local Government Pension Scheme rests with the Department of Communities and Local Government. Guidance will be issued to local authorities and other public bodies reminding them that their procurement and investment decisions should provide value for money and be consistent with UK Government policy.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Visual Arts

Nigel Adams: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the economic value of the visual arts sector was in the last five years.

Mr Edward Vaizey: The visual arts are a very important part of the UK's wider cultural and creative industries sectors and employ 1.8 million people. According to the latest set of government statistics published last month, the value of sectors categorised under 'artistic creation' - which include the visual arts - between 2010 and 2014 was £9,355,000.

MG Alba: Finance

Margaret Ferrier: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 19385, for what reasons his Department does not plan to pay another grant to MG Alba.

Mr Edward Vaizey: This information can be found in the 2015 Information Security Breaches Survey [Link]. The Government’s National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP) aims to tackle cyber crime and make the UK the safest place in the world to do business in the world. This includes the Cyber Essentials Scheme to protect businesses against common cyber threats and the cyber streetwise campaign which offers simple cyber security advice to small businesses and consumers. In addition to the £860 million investment under the NCSP between 2011-2016, in November 2015 the Chancellor announced a new five year £1.9 billion investment in cyber security to make the UK one of the best protected countries in cyber space.All Government departments must adhere to the Government’s Security Policy Framework and are required to report, manage and recover from information risk incidents, including losses of protected personal data and ICT security incidents.

Radio Frequencies

Nigel Huddleston: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the evidential basis is for clearing the 700 MHz band of spectrum requiring £600 million in funding; and what discussions his Department had with representatives of the programme making and special events sector prior to agreeing that figure.

Nigel Huddleston: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of the £600 million funding allocated for clearing the 700 MHz band of spectrum will be made available to the programme making and special events sector to compensate for the cost of new equipment required as a result of access to that band ending.

Mr Edward Vaizey: In March 2015, Government announced funding of up to £600m to fund the clearance of the 700MHz band and, as part of the programme, we are committed to safeguarding the ongoing benefits of PMSE to the UK economy. Ofcom have published a consultation outlining alternative spectrum bands for PMSE users, and we are currently working with Ofcom to look at how PMSE users can be supported if they need to buy new equipment.

Tourism: Keswick

Mr Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will estimate the cost to the tourist industry in Keswick, Cumbria, of the closure of the A591 due to recent flooding.

David Evennett: No assessment has been made by DCMS of the direct cost of the closure of the A591. Work is currently underway to repair the major route between Grasmere and Keswick, and the Department for Transport has announced that the A591 is set to reopen by the end of May.In Cumbria on the 28th January the Prime Minister announced a £1m PR campaign to support businesses ready to receive visitors, and this is part of a wider package of immediate measures to help the area.

Cybercrime

Steven Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of (a) small businesses, (b) large corporations and (c) Government departments and agencies reported breaches of cyber security in 2015.

Mr Edward Vaizey: This information can be found in the 2015 Information Security Breaches Survey [Link]. The Government’s National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP) aims to tackle cyber crime and make the UK the safest place in the world to do business in the world. This includes the Cyber Essentials Scheme to protect businesses against common cyber threats and the cyber streetwise campaign which offers simple cyber security advice to small businesses and consumers. In addition to the £860 million investment under the NCSP between 2011-2016, in November 2015 the Chancellor announced a new five year £1.9 billion investment in cyber security to make the UK one of the best protected countries in cyber space.All Government departments must adhere to the Government’s Security Policy Framework and are required to report, manage and recover from information risk incidents, including losses of protected personal data and ICT security incidents.

Cybercrime

Steven Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many (a) small and medium-sized enterprises and (b) other businesses have signed up to the Cyber Essentials Scheme.

Mr Edward Vaizey: At the end of January 2016, 1,674 Cyber essentials and Cyber essentials Plus certificates have been issued, of which 80% were awarded to micro, small and medium-sized businesses.

BBC: Royal Charters

Gerald Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he plans to publish the outcome of the consultation on the BBC Charter Renewal process.

Mr Edward Vaizey: I refer the honourable member to my response to PQ 22672, submitted to Parliament on 19 January.

Broadband

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps his Department has taken to tackle disparities in broadband coverage in (a) London and (b) the UK.

Mr Edward Vaizey: The Government is working with commercial broadband providers to encourage them to fill the remaining gaps in superfast broadband coverage in London. BT has announced £50 million of investment in new commercial coverage, much of which will be aimed at London, and Virgin Media has announced a demand led investment programme of £3 billion over the next few years. Other suppliers are also active in London. As a result of commercially-led delivery and public funding in areas which are not commercially viable, superfast broadband coverage across the UK now reaches almost 90% of premises, providing access to speeds of more than 24Mbps. Coverage is on track to increase to 95% of premises by December 2017. The Government has also announced proposals for a Universal Service Obligation to enable all premises to request a broadband speed of at least 10Mbps, with the aim of implementing it in this Parliament. A basic broadband scheme has also been introduced across the UK allowing all premises with speeds below 2Mbps to gain access to speeds above this level through a subsidised satellite broadband connection.

Broadband

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to (a) encourage innovation and competition amongst broadband network providers and (b) reduce monopoly control over broadband infrastructure.

Mr Edward Vaizey: It is a matter for Ofcom to monitor and regulate competition in electronic communications markets and last year it launched a Strategic Review of Digital Communications. Maintaining and promoting competition and innovation in the electronic communications markets are key areas that Ofcom is considering. The promotion of competition and innovation in the telecommunications sector is high on the Government’s list of objectives for the European Commission’s review of the Electronic Communications regulatory Framework, as was reflected in our response to its consultation. Proposals from the Commission are expected later this year.

Department for Work and Pensions

Occupational Money Purchase Schemes

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data his Department holds on the distribution of contributions to defined-contribution pension schemes for each (a) income level and (b) age.

Justin Tomlinson: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 29 January 2016.The correct answer should have been:

There are no breakdowns available by income level either for DC personal pensions or for DC workplace pensions.There is also no breakdown available by age for DC personal pensions, but data on the distribution of employee contribution rates to workplace DC schemes, by age, can be found within Reference Table 5.1 of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2014 publication available here: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-400776 http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-387081

Justin Tomlinson: There are no breakdowns available by income level either for DC personal pensions or for DC workplace pensions.There is also no breakdown available by age for DC personal pensions, but data on the distribution of employee contribution rates to workplace DC schemes, by age, can be found within Reference Table 5.1 of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2014 publication available here: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-400776 http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-387081

Construction: Death

Mr Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what change there has been in the length of time between a fatal accident and a prosecution over the last five years.

Justin Tomlinson: For fatalities in construction (Standard Industrial Classification Section F) resulting in a prosecution approval by HSE between 2010/11 and 2014/15, the average time between the date of incident and the date prosecution action was approved in each year is as follows:  Year of approvalAverage number of days between incident and prosecution approval by HSE2010/118772011/128412012/137832013/148512014/15879

Social Security Benefits: Inverclyde

Ronnie Cowan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many telephone calls his Department received to its benefit helplines from people in Inverclyde in 2015.

Priti Patel: DWP operates a national network of contact centres which allows calls from anywhere in the country to be routed to the next available agent, regardless of their location. This virtual national telephony network means that it is impossible to provide a definitive answer regarding the volume of calls received from any particular geographical area.

Employment and Support Allowance: North West

Julie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many new employment support allowance claimants there were in (a) Burnley, (b) Lancashire and (c) the North West in each of the last six years.

Priti Patel: The information requested has been published and can be found at: http://tabulation-tool.dwp.gov.uk/flows/flows_on/tabtool.html. Guidance on how to extract the information can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-tabulation-tool-guidance.

Employment Schemes: Mental Illness

Sammy Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps his Department has taken to provide further support for people with mental health problems in returning to work.

Justin Tomlinson: The Department for Work and Pensions lead on support for people with mental health problems in getting back to work. Over the next three years, we are investing over £40 million to develop the evidence base on what works in supporting those with mental health conditions get back to work/return to work through a series of trials Further support is available through the Access to Work Mental Health Support Service. Last year, Access to Work supported 1630 people who declared a Mental Health condition as their Primary Medical Condition – a 15% increase on 2013/14 and a record number for the programme Our wider employment programmes provide those with mental health conditions with the appropriate support to find work. Work Choice is an employment programme is specifically for those with a disability or health condition. Up to September 2015, of the 14,290 starters who declared either a Severe or Mild to Moderate Mental Health condition as their Primary Disability, 6,650 (over 46%) have achieved a job outcome. (BIS) Support is not restricted to employees, as the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is evaluating the impact of short, part-time adult education courses on people with mild to moderate mental health problems.

Pension Funds

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure cost transparency from pooled retail pension funds.

Justin Tomlinson: It is important that savers know what costs and charges they are paying. As a first step towards achieving this, most occupational pension schemes offering money purchase benefits are now required to report the charges levied on members and, as far as they are able, transaction costs, via an annual Chair’s Statement. The Chair’s Statement, which must be given to beneficiaries and recognised trade unions on request, must also report the trustees’ view on the extent to which these costs present value for members. Similarly, the Financial Conduct Authority have made rules requiring Independent Governance Committees to report annually on the value for money offered by workplace personal pension schemes, taking into account scheme charges and transaction costs. The government is committed to ensuring that members of pension schemes are also able to obtain information about all the costs and charges which they bear. Last year, the Government and the FCA jointly carried out a call for evidence on disclosure of transaction costs in pension schemes, and we are currently planning our next steps. Many pension schemes which invest in pooled funds do so via institutional versions of retail funds, for which costs other than the disclosed investment management fee will be similar. Retail funds will be covered by the Packaged Retail Investment and Insurance Products (PRIIPs) Regulation, which will apply from the end of 2016 and provides for enhanced minimum standards of disclosure.

Universal Credit: Housing

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the rollout of universal credit on the level of rent arrears to registered social landlords.

Priti Patel: This information is not collected centrally. Statistics are published annually on the total value of local authority social housing rent arrears, broken down by Local Authority area. They were most recently published on the Government’s website for 2014-15: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-housing-data#2014-to-2015

Housing Benefit: Supported Housing

Debbie Abrahams: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Minister for Disabled People's contribution on housing benefit and supported housing of 27 January 2016, Official Report, column 326, how he defines all supported housing; when the one-year exemption referred to in that debate will begin; and if he will consider exempting supported housing permanently from the rent reduction and examine placing a moratorium on the application of the local housing allowance housing benefit reduction as part of the supported housing review.

Justin Tomlinson: The Government will put in place a year-long exception for all supported housing provided by local authorities and private registered providers from the one per cent rent reduction. Details including the timescales will be set out in Regulations following Royal Assent of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill, but examples indicating the breadth of the types of accommodation intended was set out on 27 January, Official Report, column 1378. With regards to the measure to cap social tenants housing benefit and the housing cost element of Universal credit at the appropriate local housing allowance rate, we are working closely with the supported housing sector to ensure those who are vulnerable have the appropriate protections.

Welfare Tax Credits: Universal Credit

Owen Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of tax credit recipients who are likely to be migrated onto universal credit in each year of this Parliament.

Priti Patel: The number of people on benefits is driven by a range of factors. Because of this, the programme measures progress by the successful achievement of milestones of its delivery plan rather than targets for numbers of claimants.

Chronic Illnesses

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of changing eligibility criteria for personal independence payment on people with long-term medical conditions; what estimate he has made of how many people will be affected by those changes; what type of work he expects people with long-term medical conditions to undertake; and what steps he has taken to (a) ensure that employers employ people with such conditions and (b) tackle any discriminatory practices against people with such conditions.

Justin Tomlinson: DWP has conducted a consultation to seek views on how support can best be provided, through Personal Independence Payment (PIP), to help meet the costs of disability faced by people who are currently awarded points due to aids and appliances. No decision has yet been made as to whether any change should be made to the current system and the department does not have any preference between the five options presented in the consultation. We have also invited additional suggestions for change. If the Department decides that change is required, a full equality analysis will be conducted and considered prior to a final decision being made, in line with the Department’s obligations under the Equality Act 2010. This will include an estimate of the number who would be affected. PIP is payable both in and out of work. The Government is committed to giving all disabled people the opportunity to fulfil their potential and achieve their ambitions. Work is an important part of this, which is why the Government has committed to halving the disability employment gap, requiring us to transform policy, practice and public attitudes. The government’s award winning Disability Confident was launched by the Prime Minister in 2013 and works to improve employer awareness and confidence in employing, retaining and unlocking disabled people’s talents. Employment programmes like Work Choice continue to help thousands of disabled people find, start and remain in work. Since 2010, Work Choice has achieved over 39,490 job outcomes for disabled people. The Equality Act 2010 also provides statutory protection against discrimination and applies to every stage of the recruitment process. Access to Work offers additional support beyond an employer’s statutory duty to provide reasonable adjustments and last year the scheme supported 36,800 disabled people in work.

Flexible Support Fund

Owen Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what funding his Department has allocated to the Flexible Support Fund for each year of the present Parliament.

Priti Patel: The allocation for FSF for 2015/16 is £69.0m. The allocation for FSF for the rest of this parliament has not been agreed.

Ministry of Defence

Unmanned Air Vehicles

Douglas Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Zephyr 8 UAVs his Department plans to buy; what the estimated cost per unit is of that equipment; what the programme through life cost is of that equipment; and where he plans units of that equipment will be based.

Mr Philip Dunne: As part of our commitment to providing next-generation battlefield intelligence capabilities to the UK Armed Forces, the Ministry of Defence is planning to contract for the demonstration of two Zephyr Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. This contract will allow the UK to understand whether Zephyr can fulfil the requirement for a high-altitude persistent surveillance capability, as announced in the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review.The £10.6 million contract, due to be signed imminently with Airbus Defence and Space, is for an operational concept demonstration rather than individual platforms, so unit costs are not held. Furthermore, as the Zephyr demonstrators will not be in-service, they will not be based at a particular location and there will be no related support or through-life costs.Tests are due to take place in 2017 to assess Zephyr's capabilities and explore its potential.

Saudi Arabia: Security

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Overseas Security and Justice Assessment assessments the Government has carried out in relation to UK aid and security assistance programmes to Saudi Arabia in the last two years.

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Overseas Security and Justice Assessment assessments carried out by the Government in relation to UK aid and security assistance programmes to Saudi Arabia have been referred to a Minister for review in the last two years; what the object of each of those reviews was; and whether each of those reviews received ministerial (a) approval and (b) refusal for that programme.

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Overseas Security and Justice Assessment assessments carried out by the Government in relation to UK aid and security assistance programmes to Saudi Arabia in the last two years have (a) required and (b) not required mitigating measures.

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Overseas Security and Justice Assessment assessments carried out by the Government in relation to UK aid and security assistance programmes to Saudi Arabia in the last two years have been reviewed since March 2015; and on what dates each of those reviews took place.

Penny Mordaunt: In the past two years the MOD has conducted three Overseas Security and Justice Assessments in relation to security assistance programmes with Saudi Arabia. Such engagement encompasses Defence Exercises, Defence Training in Saudi Arabia, Defence training in the UK (or a third party country), High Level International Engagement, UK personnel conducting long-term capacity building (Loan Service Teams/British Military Mission) and Working level International Engagement.

Veterans: Military Decorations

Dr Andrew Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 19 October 2015 to Question 10743, how many applications from Normandy veterans for the Legion d'Honneur are not yet processed by his Department.

Mark Lancaster: In order to help the French authorities we have jointly developed improved administrative procedures, whereby the UK is submitting Legion d'Honneur applications to the French in a steady flow in approximately the order they were received by the Ministry of Defence.Some 2,900 applications have been sent to the French Embassy since the new system began in July last year; we have approximately 1,750 cases still to be submitted and the Department continues to receive new applications on a weekly basis. Cases are given priority on the grounds of ill-health or extreme age.

Army: Wiltshire

Dr Andrew Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many army (a) personnel and (b) dependents (i) are based and (ii) will be based in Wiltshire in 2020.

Mark Lancaster: The number of Army personnel based in Army units located within Wiltshire as at 1 October 2015 is 13,010. The Army estimates that 9,900 entitled family members are currently associated with Army personnel based in Wiltshire.The current planning assumption for the number of Army personnel based in Army units located within Wiltshire in 2020 is 17,700. It is estimated that 14,300 entitled family members will be associated with these Army personnel.

Ministry of Defence: Compensation

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department has paid out in compensation to (a) internal and (b) external claimants in each year since 2010.

Mark Lancaster: The amounts paid as a result of claims brought by internal and external claimants including claimants' legal costs from Financial Year (FY) 2010-11 to FY2013-14 are shown below. The costs for FY 2014-15 are being finalised and will be published shortly. Internal Claimants The amounts paid in compensation, including claimants' legal costs, for claims brought against the Ministry of Defence (MOD) by members and former members of HM Forces and civilian employees since 2010 are as follows: Employers Liabilty Claims (including Service personnel and civilian staff) FY 2010-11FY 2011-12FY 2012-13FY 2013-14£83.9 million£62.0 million£69.5 million£58.5 million The vast majority of clinical negligence claims are brought by current or former members of HM Armed Forces but a small number will relate to their dependants treated in MOD medical facilities. The amounts paid in compensation, including claimants' legal costs, for these claims since 2010 are as follows:Clinical Negligence Claims FY 2010-11FY 2011-12FY 2012-13FY 2013-14£17.0 million£6.7 million£7.1 million£5.8 million External Claimants Public Liability Claims The amounts paid in compensation, including claimants' legal costs, for public liability claims brought against the MOD by third parties, including civilians both in the UK and overseas, relating to personal injury or property damage since 2010 are as follows: FY 2010-112011-122012-132013-14£5.4 million£10.0 million£25.0 million£11.1 million Third Party Motor Claims in UK The amounts paid in compensation, including claimants' legal costs, for claims brought against the MOD by third parties involved in collisions with MOD-operated vehicles since 2010 are as follows: FY 2010-11FY 2011-12FY 2012-13FY 2013-14£5.6 million£6.7 million£4.8 million£5.0 million Area Claims Offices The amounts paid in compensation, including claimants' legal costs, for claims brought against the MOD by third parties that are managed by the MODs regional Area Claims Offices since 2010 are as follows: FY 2010-11FY 2011-12FY 2012-13FY 2013-14£3.0 million£1.8 million£1.7 million£1.5 million

Military Bases: Death

Dr Lisa Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of non-combatant deaths on military bases have been subject to an inquest by jury in each of the last five years.

Mark Lancaster: The information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Dennis Copping

Jason McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make representations to the Egyptian government on the possibility of submitting human remains found in the Western Desert in 2012 if still in existence to new DNA tests to compare them with DNA samples provided by the family of Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping whose aeroplane crashed in the Sahara on 28 June 1942.

Mark Lancaster: Rigorous DNA tests undertaken by the Egyptian authorities at our behest some three years ago were unable to provide viable DNA samples due to the age and degradation of the human remains found. There are no plans to undertake new DNA tests.

Iraq: Military Intervention

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) reconnaissance, (b) combat and (c) other missions were flown by RAF aircraft over Iraq in the last 12 months.

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) reconnaissance, (b) combat and (c) other missions were flown by RAF aircraft over Syria in the last 12 months.

Penny Mordaunt: The number of reconnaissance, combat and other missions between 1 February 2015 and 1 February 2016 are detailed in the table below. The majority of aircraft flying missions in Syrian airspace will have flown over Iraqi airspace as well. Reaper, Tornado and Typhoon are multi-role aircraft and as such can be deployed in both a combat mission and a reconnaissance mission. Other missions have been defined as those involved in the transportation of people or equipment.  SyriaIraqReconnaissance Missions435906Combat Missions64699Other0484* *This figure does not include C17, which is estimated to have flown two missions a month in the period in question. The records for C17 are not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

RAF Lossiemouth: Maritime Patrol Aircraft

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2016 to Question 24281, how many maritime patrol aircraft from (a) the US, (b) Canada, (c) France and (d) Germany were temporarily deployed to RAF Lossiemouth in 2015.

Penny Mordaunt: The table below shows the total number of maritime patrol aircraft (MPA), from the US, Canada, France and Germany, temporarily deployed to RAF Lossiemouth at some point during 2015.CountryNumber of aircraftUS11Canada3France5Germany2

Type 45 Destroyers: Deployment

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2016 to Question 25004, (a) for how many days (a) HMS Daring, (b) HMS Dauntless, (c) HMS Diamond, (d) HMS Dragon, (e) HMS Defender and (f) HMS Duncan were deployed on operations and (b) in which theatre they were so deployed in (i) 2011, (ii) 2012, (iii) 2013 and (iv) 2014.

Penny Mordaunt: The information requested is provided below. In answering this question, I have defined 'deployed on operations' as times away from UK waters for extended periods.In 2011, the Type 42 Destroyers were deployed on operations. No Type 45 Destroyer was deployed away from the UK. 2012ShipDeploymentNumber of DaysHMS DARINGOperation Kipion: Gulf Region210HMS DAUNTLESSAtlantic Patrol Tasking (South)209HMS DIAMONDOperation Kipion: Gulf Region191 2013ShipDeploymentNumber of DaysHMS DRAGONOperation Kipion: Gulf Region254HMS DARINGGlobal Deployment277 2014ShipDeploymentNumber of DaysHMS DIAMONDOperation Recsyr: protecting and escorting ships transporting chemicals from Syria163HMS DEFENDEROperation Kipion: Gulf Region193HMS DRAGONAtlantic Patrol Tasking (South)198 When not deployed on operations, all Type 45 ships would have undertaken activities such as sea trials, training, engagement, provisioning or been in a maintenance period.

Warships: Construction

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2016 to Question 25075, from which countries steel was sourced for the manufacture of the offshore patrol vessels currently under construction; and what proportion of that steel was sourced from each such country.

Mr Philip Dunne: For the Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) currently under construction around 4,000 tonnes of steel is needed in total for the three ships. Dent Steel Services (UK) was awarded the contract by BAE Systems to source and supply the steel required for the OPVs. Around 60 per cent of the total steel required for the OPVs consists of thin plate (between four and five millimeters ) which can be sourced only from steel mills capable of rolling the material to that thickness. UK steel suppliers were approached by Dent but none were able to meet the thickness specification. As a result this steel was sourced from overseas suppliers. Around 60 per cent of the overall requirement was sourced from Sweden; 20 per cent from UK steel mills; 10 per cent from Spain; and the remaining 10 per cent from Dent's existing stock, of unknown origin. The use of overseas suppliers was necessary to obtain the required specification of steel at a competitive price for delivery at the time required.

HMS Diamond

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2016 to Question 25006, for what reason the repair and maintenance costs of HMS Diamond were greater than those of the other Type 45 Destroyers.

Mr Philip Dunne: The primary cause of the greater repair and maintenance costs for HMS DIAMOND was a longer Docking Period than the other two routine docking cycles. HMS DARING and HMS DAUNTLESS are the only other Type 45 Destroyers to have completed a routine docking cycle. The additional length of the Docking Period was a reflection of the number of capability upgrades and modifications, fitted to HMS DIAMOND. This was entirely normal for a class of warship of this age and all future Docking Periods for the Class are now programmed for a similar duration.

Reserve Forces: Electronic Warfare

Steven Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many of the reserve forces are cyber specialists.

Penny Mordaunt: We are significantly growing the number of dedicated Cyber specialists in the Reserves. Recruiting is on track to meet our target by April 2017. As with other sensitive Defence capabilities, I am withholding the information requested as its disclosure would, or would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.

Defence Cyber Operations Group: Staff

Steven Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many staff make up the Defence Cyber Operations Group.

Steven Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the budget of the Defence Cyber Operations Group was in each of the last five years.

Penny Mordaunt: The Defence Cyber Operations Group was designed to deliver cyber capability and mainstream cyber security throughout Defence by establishing a federation of cyber units. As this work matured it resulted instead in the formation of the Joint Forces Cyber Group in May 2013.The Joint Forces Cyber Group (JFCyG) plans and co-ordinates cyber operations, and develops new tactics, techniques and plans to deliver military capabilities to confront high-end threats. It comprises Joint Cyber Units at Cheltenham and Corsham, the Joint Cyber Unit (Reserve) and Information Assurance Units.I am withholding details on the JFCyG as their disclosure would, or would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.

Home Office

Immigration Controls

Andy Burnham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people had their passports checked on entry to the UK at (a) Dover and (b) all UK airports, seaports and ferry ports in (i) 2013, (ii) 2014 and (iii) 2015.

Mrs Theresa May: Holding answer received on 21 January 2016



The total number of passengers that underwent passport checks at all UK airports, seaports and ferry ports is set out in the table below. Figures for 2015 cover January to September only as data for October to December is not yet available. YearNo of passengers' passports checked2013111.4 million2014117.0 million201596.0 million(NB. 2015 covers January –September only: October - December is not yet available).Passengers that enter the UK through the port of Dover undergo passport checks in advance of their boarding a ferry at the UK’s juxtaposed controls at Calais and Dunkirk; this data is not held centrally.

Counter-terrorism

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January 2016 to Question 21823, how many of her Department's approved Intervention Providers for the Channel programme are (a) men and (b) women.

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January 2016 to Question 21823, how many of her Department's approved Intervention Providers for the Channel programme are located in (a) the North East, (b) the North West, (c) Yorkshire and the Humber, (d) the East Midlands, (e) the West Midlands, (f) the East of England, (g) London, (h) the South East and (i) the South West.

Mr John Hayes: There are currently 39 male and 13 female intervention providers listed in our register. We keep the list under constant review. The breakdown listed below shows where the intervention provider is based, however, most intervention providers are available to work across England and Wales, and are not limited to working in the region they are based in.  RegionTotal number of providers North East1North West10Yorkshire and the Humber1East Midlands7West Midlands6East of England3London20South East1South West2Wales1

Immigration Controls

Mr David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2016 to Question 22835, in what months the biometric passport chip reading facilities were deactivated in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015.

Mr David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2016 to Question 22835, in what months the biometric passport chip reading facilities were deactivated in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015.

James Brokenshire: For the period for which figures are available, biometric chip reading facilities were deactivated 7 times in 2013 and these occurred during the months of February, March, May & June. In 2014 chip reading facilities were deactivated 3 times and these occurred during the months of September, October and December. In 2015, chip reading facilities were deactivated 3 times and occurred during the months of February, April, and June.These figures should be considered against the background of the overall volume of transactions which are currently running at over 100 million per year and each of the instances has been thoroughly investigated and we are satisfied that there has been no risk to the border as a result.

Immigration

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the events in Cologne at New Year 2015-16 in respect of information given to new immigrants to the UK on legal and cultural issues.

James Brokenshire: We expect all immigrants to the UK to abide by the law and to respect our shared values, and those who wish to stay permanently have to take the Knowledge of Life in the UK Test which reinforces this expectation. For those that do not respect the law, we will consider removal and exclusion. We keep all our immigration polices under regular review.

Police: Disclosure of Information

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the effectiveness of the arrangements for information sharing between police and councils under Common Law Police Disclosure.

Karen Bradley: Common Law Police Disclosure (CLPD) is police led. The National Police Chiefs’ Council issue guidance for CLPD to all Chief Officers to ensure compliance.Operational use of the scheme follows the principles of the statutory guidance relating to the disclosure of local police information on criminal record certificates.The Home Office does not make any separate assessment of the scheme.

Vetting: Camberwell and Peckham

Ms Harriet Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications to the Disclosure and Barring Service from people living in Camberwell and Peckham constituency have taken more than 60 days to process in each of the last 12 months.

Karen Bradley: Holding answer received on 11 February 2016



The number of applications to the Disclosure and Barring Service from people living in Camberwell and Peckham constituency that have taken more than 60 days to process in each of the last 12 months is listed in the table below.   MonthTotal Applications Issued to Applicants from the Constituency of Camberwell and PeckhamApplications that took longer than 60 daysFeb-151,106211Mar-151,355204Apr-151,181179May-151,213185Jun-151,286184Jul-151,364263Aug-151,041154Sep-151,241185Oct-151,311215Nov-151,099216Dec-15954165Jan-161,02321014,1742,371

Prostitution

Mr Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions (a) she and (b) officials of her Department had with the National Police Chiefs' Council on its revised prostitution strategy.

Mr Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the appointment process was for the National Police Chiefs' Council lead on prostitution, Assistant Chief Constable Nikki Holland; and what duties ACC Holland is expected to fulfil in consulting with stakeholders.

Mr Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the appointment process was for members of the National Police Chiefs' Council working group on prostitution.

Mr Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on whether the National Police Chiefs' Council consulted academics in producing its revised prostitution strategy.

Mr Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, who the members are of the National Police Chiefs' Council working group on prostitution.

Karen Bradley: Within the structure of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), chief officers are elected by their peers and take the lead on specific issues from a national operational perspective. It is for the national leads to establish working groups to support them in their role. The Home Office is in regular dialogue with on the NPCC Lead for Prostitution’s office, and as such discussed and commented on the current revision of the strategy.Prostitution is a complex issue, which can impact on individuals and communities in many different ways, and we are therefore clear that local areas and police forces are in the best position to identify and respond to issues around prostitution in their area. Police forces are assisted in doing so by the National Policing Lead’s refreshed Policing Sex Work Strategy, which stresses the priority of the public protection duty that the police services have in relation to the safety of those involved in prostitution.

Female Genital Mutilation: Convictions

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to increase the number of convictions for carrying out female genital mutilation.

Karen Bradley: Holding answer received on 11 February 2016



Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a crime and it is child abuse.The Serious Crime Act 2015 introduced a number of measures to break down potential barriers to prosecution, including:• a new mandatory reporting duty which requires specified professionals to report known cases of FGM in under 18s to the police; • extending extra-territorial jurisdiction over offences of FGM committed abroad; • providing lifelong anonymity for victims of FGM; • introducing FGM Protection Orders which can be used to protect girls at risk; and • creating a new offence of failing to protect a girl from the risk of FGM.To help ensure the police have the guidance they need to tackle FGM effectively, in March 2015 the College of Policing published Authorised Professional Practice on FGM and this was updated in September 2015. In addition, lead FGM prosecutors have been appointed for each Crown Prosecution Service area and have agreed joint FGM investigation and prosecution protocols with their local police forces.

Police: Public Appointments

John Woodcock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether it is her policy that police and crime commissioners be made aware of all Independent Police Complaints Commission investigations into appointments of chief constables and acting chief constables.

Mike Penning: It is a matter for police and crime commissioners to satisfy themselves that all pertinent facts are taken into consideration when appointing a chief constable. During any period when the chief constable is unable to exercise his or her duties, the current deputy chief constable is required to perform the functions of the chief constable.The Police Reform Act 2002 sets out the requirements on the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to provide information about its investigations, including outcomes, to complainants and other parties. For investigations into matters relating chief constables, these requirements extend to Police and Crime Commissioners where they are the appropriate authority. The IPCC publishes its investigation reports subject to a harm test, including consideration of the risk of prejudicing any coronial, criminal or disciplinary proceedings. The IPCC is required by law to publish any learning recommendations it makes.

Female Genital Mutilation

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how the Government's funding for community projects to tackle female genital mutilation has been spent.

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much of the funding for tackling female genital mutilation has been allocated to prevention work.

Karen Bradley: Holding answer received on 11 February 2016



Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a crime and it is child abuse. We will not tolerate a practice that can cause extreme and lifelong physical and psychological suffering to women and girls.In 2014/15, the Government provided over £380,000 to community organisations through the Home Office’s FGM Community Engagement Initiative and the Department for Communities and Local Government’s FGM and forced marriage prevention projects.The 29 projects all included prevention work with a focus on building the confidence of women and communities to speak out against these practices and raising awareness of the serious consequences they can have.Evaluations show that over 25,000 people were reached and feedback from participants demonstrates increased awareness of the context, manifestation and harm caused by FGM and forced marriage.

Female Genital Mutilation

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that police forces and local authorities are making use of female genital mutilation protection orders.

Karen Bradley: Holding answer received on 11 February 2016



Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders (FGMPOs) were fast-tracked for implementation in July 2015, ahead of the school holidays, and are already being used protect girls at risk of FGM.The Ministry of Justice published guidance on FGM Protection Orders for local authorities in July 2015, and in September 2015, the College of Policing updated its Authorised Professional Practice on FGM to include guidance on FGMPOs.In addition, the Government will shortly be publishing updated FGM multi-agency guidance, which we are placing on a statutory footing for the first time. This will help increase awareness of FGM and improve compliance with good practice and will include guidance for all professionals on FGMPOs.We will also continue to work with the police and other agencies to take forward the recommendations in Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’s report into ‘honour-based’ violence to ensure the police response to victims, including through use of FGMPOs, is as strong as possible.

Asylum: Syria

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government has a policy on resettling refugees from Syria who have previously been living in Syria as Palestinian refugees.

James Brokenshire: The UK operates three resettlement programmes: Gateway, Mandate and the Syrian Resettlement Scheme.Only UNHCR registered Syrian nationals are eligible under the Syrian Resettlement Scheme, which has been expanded to resettle 20,000 individuals during this Parliament. We work closely with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to identify cases that they deem in need of resettlement according to agreed vulnerability criteria for the Syrian Resettlement Scheme.Gateway and Mandate are not nationality specific.The Gateway Protection programme resettles UNHCR recognised refugees from a small number of targeted locations.The Mandate resettlement programme resettles individuals from anywhere in the world who have been recognised as refugees by UNHCR, and judged by them to be in need of resettlement; and who have a close family member in the UK who is willing to accommodate them.

Scotland Office

Scottish Steel Task Force

Margaret Ferrier: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, which (a) Ministers and (b) officials of his Department attended the Scottish Steel Task Force meeting on (i) 29 January 2015, (ii) 13 November 2015, (iii) 26 November 2015, (iv) 11 December 2015 and (v) 14 January 2016.

David Mundell: As the hon Member knows from our discussions on this issue, Scotland Office Ministers have taken a close interest in this matter, including meeting with BIS Ministers to discuss the impact of Tata Steel closures in Scotland. While Scotland Office Ministers have not attended the Taskforce, the Scotland Office has been represented by officials at all of the Scottish Steel Taskforce meetings to date.In addition, we have worked with BIS colleagues to ensure that Scottish Government officials have been able to fully participate in the three UK working groups, and Scottish Government have been invited to be part of the newly formed Steel Council.

Local Government: Dundee

Chris Law: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the City Deal for Dundee and neighbouring authorities; and when the Government plans to make a decision on that deal.

David Mundell: I have met separately with local authorities in Dundee, Angus and Perth and I was able to confirm that the UK Government is interested to hear from any local authority or group of local authorities interested in pursuing a City Deal. To date, we have not received formal proposals from any of those Councils.

Food Banks: Scotland

Margaret Ferrier: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, on what date he last visited a food bank in Scotland.

David Mundell: I have not visited a food bank in my capacity as Secretary of State for Scotland.

State Retirement Pensions: Scotland

Margaret Ferrier: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of States for Work and Pensions on the adequacy of advice given to women in Scotland affected by the changes to their state pension age.

David Mundell: I and my officials have regular engagement with colleagues in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on a range of important matters, including the State Pension.The Department for Work and Pensions has written to those affected by State Pension age change and who are due to reach State Pension age by 2026, using the address details recorded by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs at the time. The DWP also makes information on State Pension age changes and who they affect available on the Government website at www.gov.uk, including the option to calculate State Pension age.State Pension age changes are part of a wider package of reforms being implemented by this Government. All women affected by faster equalisation under the Pensions Act 2011 will reach State Pension age after the introduction of the new State Pension. The new State Pension will benefit many women who have been historically worse off under the current system, with 650,000 women receiving £8 more per week (on average) in the first 10 years, due to the new State Pension valuation of their National Insurance record.Encouraging and enabling those who can work to work for longer is a Government priority. In work, out of work and disability benefits are available for those individuals who are unable to work. Those who have caring responsibilities may be eligible for National Insurance credits towards their State Pension.

HM Treasury

Welfare State

Caroline Lucas: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2016 to Question 24355, whether his Department has carried out any feasibility studies or other assessments of basic income or similar schemes since 1990.

Damian Hinds: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given on 1 February 2016, reference 24355.

Business: Taxation

Caroline Lucas: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to accept the invitation from the European Parliament's Special Committee on Tax Rulings to meet it to discuss how to ensure a fair corporate tax regime in the EU.

Mr David Gauke: On behalf of the Chancellor and as Minister responsible for tax policy, I met with delegates of the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Tax Rulings when they visited London on 18 June 2015, to explain the UK position that tax policy is a matter for national governments, and to provide information on the international and domestic action taken by this Government to counter tax evasion and avoidance. The Chancellor will consider any formal requests to meet the Committee in due course.

Revenue and Customs

Louise Haigh: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish equality impact assessments and cost benefit analysis produced as part of the programme of rationalisation of HM Revenue and Customs offices.

Louise Haigh: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, at which offices the 4,000 staff of HM Revenue and Customs who are expected to live outside the reasonable travel to work area after the Building Our Future reorganisation work.

Mr David Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) Location Programme is the result of an extended period of consultation and deliberation. The Department has taken account of a number of criteria in reaching its decisions, including the quality of local transport links, the local labour market and future workforce supply, the cost of buildings and asset value, and the need to retain the staff and skills it needs to continue its transformation. These changes will reduce HMRC’s estates costs by around £100 million a year by 2025. HMRC conducted high level People Impact and Equality Assessments to inform its planning. The Department plans to update these once discussions have been held with its staff. HMRC’s modelling estimates that the majority of staff live within Reasonable Daily Travel of a regional centre. Reasonable Daily Travel is calculated in line with established HR policies and procedures. Every worker at HMRC will have a one-to-one meeting with their manager to discuss their individual circumstances.

Revenue and Customs: Redundancy

Louise Haigh: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when in January 2016 the decision to issue compulsory redundancy notices to 152 HM Revenue and Customs staff was made.

Louise Haigh: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, where the 152 staff who have been issued with compulsory redundancy notices by HM Revenue and Customs staff are based.

Mr David Gauke: Approval to proceed to compulsory redundancy for 152 HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) staff was received from Civil Service Resourcing and the Cabinet Office following consultation with the departmental trade unions and a period of reflection. It was endorsed by HMRC’s Executive Committee and the final decision was taken by the Chief Executive on 28 January 2016.The 152 people affected are based in around 50 locations across the UK. HMRC is continuing to seek redeployment solutions for all those who wish it to do so.

Small Businesses: Taxation

Toby Perkins: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what representations he has received over the additional burdens to small businesses of the move to quarterly tax returns.

Mr David Gauke: Making Tax Digital will not involve quarterly tax returns. Instead, this is about making life easier for businesses – saving them time and money. These changes are a central part of a package of reforms that will save businesses £400m in administrative burdens. Many taxpayers have told HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) that they want more certainty over their tax bill and access to an in-year picture of their tax position. Instead of an onerous tax return, once a quarter businesses will update HMRC from their digital records and in most cases, little or no further entry of information will be needed. These reforms will make it easier for business to understand how much tax they owe, giving them far more certainty over their tax position, helping them budget, invest and grow. The Government has received a number of representations from individuals, businesses, professional bodies and the software industry about Making Tax Digital. I also refer the honourable Member to my response of 11 January 2016 (with references 20876 and 21032).

Exchange Rates

Mr Graham Brady: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, in which EU countries the purchasing power of sterling is currently less than in the UK; and whether the Government has made an assessment of the likelihood that, under proposals for reform of the UK's relationship with the EU, EU law would require proposed child benefit payment adjustments to be increased in such countries.

Mr David Gauke: Information regarding the purchasing power of the sterling compared with other EU Member States is publically available at the following address: ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&plugin=1&pcode=tec00120&language=en. Details of the proposals for child benefit is subject to the ongoing negotiation.

Overseas Trade

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason trade statistics are collected on a different basis by HM Revenue and Customs and the Office for National Statistics; and what plans the Government has to align the collection of such data.

Mr David Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is required to collect trade in goods statistics by EU legislation. This legislation sets out the detail and frequency of the data to be collected and provided to the EU Commission. Council Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 and Commission Regulations (EU) No 92/2010 and No 113/2010 set out the requirement for HMRC to collect trade in goods statistics between the UK and non-EU countries. Council Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1982/2004 sets out the requirement to collect the corresponding statistics between the UK and other EU Member States.HMRC provides trade in goods data to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). As required by the sixth edition of the International Monetary Fund’s Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6) and the European System of Natural and Regional Accounts (ESA 2010), National Accounts and Balance of Payments also include trade in services. The ONS collects this data.

Child Benefit: Immigrants

Owen Smith: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of people receiving child benefit on behalf of children living outside of the UK.

Damian Hinds: I refer the honourable Member to my response of 16 June 2015 (UIN 2064)http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-06-10/2064/

Revenue and Customs: Cumbernauld

Stuart C. McDonald: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether there will be compulsory redundancy notices issued to staff based at HM Revenue and Customs Cumbernauld office in the next 12 months.

Mr David Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs currently has no plans to issue compulsory redundancy notices to staff based at its Cumbernauld office within the next 12 months.

Personal Savings

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of combining the ISA and personal pension systems.

Mr David Gauke: The Chancellor of the Exchequer keeps all taxes under review.

Revenue and Customs: Northern Ireland

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what change there was in the number of (a) full-time and (b) part-time employees of HM Revenue and Customs in Northern Ireland between 2010 and 2015.

Mr David Gauke: As of 31 March 2010, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) employed 1500 full-time and 640 part-time staff in Northern Ireland. As of 31 March 2015, there were 1,050 full-time and 620 part-time staff.

Self-employed: Taxation

Stephen Timms: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will have discussions with the Office of Tax Simplification on reviewing and simplifying the tax regime for contractors.

Mr David Gauke: The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) is already considering a wide range of issues relating to the taxation of contractors as part of its small companies review. It will report on its findings ahead of Budget. The topics of future OTS reviews will be announced in due course.

Local Government Finance

Mr Christopher Chope: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether any Barnett consequentials arise from the Local Government Finance Report (England) 2016-17.

Greg Hands: The Barnett Formula will be applied in the usual way to any additional funding from the Exchequer arising from the final local government finance settlement for 2016-17.

Child Benefit: EU Countries

Owen Smith: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what preparatory work his Department has undertaken on the administration of differential rates of child benefit across EU member states.

Owen Smith: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of his Department's capacity to administer different rates of child benefits to other EU member states.

Damian Hinds: Details of the proposals for child benefit are subject to ongoing negotiation.

Corporation Tax: Disclosure of Information

Caroline Flint: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether there are any circumstances in which Ministers are entitled to access corporate tax returns submitted to HM Revenue and Customs.

Mr David Gauke: No.

Google: Taxation

Jim McMahon: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he was made aware of HM Revenue and Customs' original estimate of tax due by Google prior to the recent tax settlement with that company.

Mr David Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs is responsible for the conduct of tax enquiries, and Ministers are not informed of the progress of enquiries and play no part in agreeing the amount of tax to be paid by any taxpayer.

Department for Energy and Climate Change

Hydroelectric Power: Feed-in Tariffs

Ian Murray: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how the response provided by the British Hydropower Association to her Department's Consultation on feed-in tariffs was taken into account by her Department in the assumptions used to determine that hydropower load factors are site specific.

Andrea Leadsom: Holding answer received on 09 February 2016



The load factor data used to calculate hydro generation tariffs were drawn from individual sites but then aggregated to calculate a load factor range on which to base the tariffs. This included data collected by external consultants and evidence submitted by various individuals and organisations, including the British Hydropower Association, in response to the consultation.

Tidal Power

Glyn Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what plans she has for supporting the development of tidal energy projects.

Andrea Leadsom: The Government recognises the potential that tidal energy could play as part of the UK energy mix. We are considering how best we can support the development of tidal stream energy, following my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State’s autumn speech. On 10 February the Government announced that it will commission an independent review to assess the strategic case for tidal lagoons and whether they could represent good value for consumers. We anticipate that the review will be completed in due course.

Solar Power: Feed-in Tariffs

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the effects of changes in feed-in tariffs on small businesses in the solar industry.

Andrea Leadsom: The Government published an impact assessment alongside the Government Response to the FIT Review consultation on 17 December, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486084/IA_-_FITs_consultation_response_with_Annexes_-_FINAL_SIGNED.pdf. This assessed impacts of the changes across the solar industry as a whole..

Solar Power: Feed-in Tariffs

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the effects of changes in feed-in tariffs on the number of installations of solar panels by domestic customers.

Andrea Leadsom: The Government published an impact assessment alongside the Government Response to the feed-in tariff review consultation on 17 December, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486084/IA_-_FITs_consultation_response_with_Annexes_-_FINAL_SIGNED.pdf. This projects that the feed-in tariff scheme will support over 178,000 new solar PV installations at the domestic scale (sub 4kW) up to 2018/19.

Energy: Employment

Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the Government's policy is towards the Big Six energy companies that seek to outsource or offshore directly employed jobs in retail operations; and if she will make a statement.

Andrea Leadsom: It is important we have a vibrant, dynamic energy market where energy companies work hard to attract customers though customer service as well as price. The management of retail operations, such as answering enquiries and addressing complaints from their consumers, however, are commercial matters for the individual companies.

Solar Power: VAT

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what discussions she has had with (a) the Chancellor of the Exchequer and (b) HM Revenue and Customs on proposals to increase VAT rates on solar panels.

Andrea Leadsom: I have had no discussions with my rt. hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer or HM Revenue and Customs on the proposals to amend the application of VAT to energy saving materials. The changes stem from a legal judgement in the European Court which found that the reduced rate of VAT on energy saving products had been applied too widely. As part of the amendments, HMRC recently consulted on removing solar panels from the list of measures eligible for the reduce rate of VAT. They are currently considering the responses to that consultation.

Energy

Mr Philip Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps she is taking to prevent the mis-selling of domestic energy to pensioners.

Andrea Leadsom: Energy companies are required under their licence conditions to ensure all information that they or their representatives provide to domestic customers during a marketing activity is complete, accurate and easily understood.Ofgem has powers to investigate and impose sanctions, such as financial penalties, on energy companies when they are found to have breached their licence conditions, including mis-selling.

Energy: Meters

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what plans her Department has to ensure that the smart meter roll-out is used as an opportunity to engage with householders on the issue of carbon monoxide safety.

Andrea Leadsom: Energy suppliers are responsible for installing smart meters in their domestic customers’ premises. It is, a condition of their licence that energy suppliers must comply with the Smart Meter Installation Code of Practice, which is regulated by Ofgem: http://www.smicop.co.uk/SitePages/Home.aspx The Code states that the installer should inform the customer about the dangers of carbon monoxide (CO) and the need to regularly have all gas appliances serviced and checked by a Gas Safe Registered engineer.

Housing: Insulation

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what plans she has to increase investment in home insulation.

Andrea Leadsom: We have made a commitment to insulate 1 million more homes this Parliament. We are providing support for households to improve their energy efficiency through a reformed domestic supplier obligation (ECO) from April 2017. This will run for five years, with a value of £640 million per year. Additionally, our Private Rented Sector Energy Efficiency Regulations made law from March 2015, will help up to 1 million domestic tenants in the private rented sector. This is expected to grow over time as people move from property to property.

Energy: Prices

John  Nicolson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps she is taking to ensure that reductions in the wholesale price of energy are passed on to consumers.

Amber Rudd: Average domestic gas prices fell by £37 during 2015, and all six major suppliers have announced a further reduction in their tariffs in recent months. This is a good start, but the Government expects all suppliers to pass on reductions in the costs of supplying energy to consumers. I have met all the major energy suppliers in recent months to make that point clear. The Competition and Markets Authority are nearing the end of their enquiry into the energy markets, and I look forward to their conclusions. I am determined to do whatever it takes to ensure markets work well for consumers.

Oil: Prices

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps she is taking to ensure that oil price reductions are fully passed on to customers.

Andrea Leadsom: The Government believes that it is important that consumers get a fair deal and any falls in oil prices are passed on to lower prices for consumers. We have made this clear to energy providers.DECC continuously monitors pump prices, and publish average prices of petrol and diesel every Monday. Movements in pump prices are primarily driven by changes to crude oil prices; though pump prices are also influenced by a range of other factors, including refining capacity, stock levels, distribution costs and retail margins.Analysis by the Department has found that crude price changes are being reflected in pump prices and suggests that on average, at a national level, sustained crude price changes are fully passed through into pump prices within 6-7 weeks; though much of the change is passed through earlier.

Energy Supply

Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the effect on the security of the electricity supply from the National Grid of the closure of Rugeley Power Station; and if she will make a statement.

Andrea Leadsom: We are clear that delivering energy security for our families and businesses is non-negotiable. We knew some old coal plants would likely be closing and we have already taken steps to protect supply for the coming winters, which took account of the possibility of further closures. Specifically, National Grid took into account the risk of coal plant closures in considering how much capacity to procure for next winter’s Contingency Balancing reserve. Longer term, the Capacity Market will drive investment in new capacity as well as get the best out of our existing power stations. We will continue to work alongside National Grid and Ofgem to take whatever additional steps are necessary to protect our energy supply.

Cabinet Office

Small Businesses

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the Public Contract Regulations 2015 on small businesses.

Matthew Hancock: The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 introduced a number of reforms to increase transparency, streamline processes and ensure prompt payment. These reforms were introduced to support all businesses, especially smaller ones. The impact of these reforms is being assessed by our Mystery Shopper service, who will publish a report on progress in due course.Direct SME spend in central government increased from under £3 billion (direct only) in 2009-10 to over £12 billion in 2014-15 (direct spend and spend through the supply chain).

Government: Internet

Chris Davies: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost was of guidance published on the gov.uk website in each of the last five years; what the mean and range costs are of producing each piece of advice; and how many pieces of guidance were produced in each of the last five years.

Matthew Hancock: The costs for GOV.UK are accounted for with other costs for the Government Digital Service and published in the Cabinet Office Report and Accounts as part of the Efficiency and Reform Group.Departments also produce and publish their own material onto GOV.UK so some costs will rest with them.

Cybercrime

Steven Paterson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many UK businesses have participated in the Be Cyber Streetwise campaign.

Matthew Hancock: The Cyber Streetwise campaign has been supported by fifty-six private sector businesses in a variety of ways. This figure includes membership associations, but excludes public sector organisations such as the police, universities and Neighbourhood Watch.

Cybercrime

Steven Paterson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people have taken part in the Cyber Security Challenge Competition in each year since its inception.

Matthew Hancock: Cyber security skills and talent are vital to protecting the UK. The Cyber Security Challenge UK competition aims to bring more talented people into the cyber security profession and address a critical skills shortage that affects government bodies, businesses and citizens alike. The number of people who have taken part in the Cyber Security Challenge Competition each year since its inception is as follows:• 2011 – 4,000;• 2012 – 2,785;• 2013 – 2,910;• 2014 – 2,104;• 2015 – 7,018

Cybercrime

Steven Paterson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many organisations have been assisted in recovery from cyber-attack by the Cyber Incident Response Team in (a) Scotland, (b) Wales, (c) England and (d) Northern Ireland.

Steven Paterson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many organisations have been assisted in recovery from cyber-attack by the Cyber Incident Response Team in each year since that team was established.

Matthew Hancock: CERT-UK is the UK National Computer Emergency Response Team. CERT-UK advises organisations on what actions to take in the event of a cyber incident and offers advice and guidance on how to mitigate threats pre and post incident through one to one meetings and through its online sharing platform, the Cyber-security Information Sharing Partnership (CiSP). CERT-UK has dealt with 1170 incidents since its launch in March 2014.

Government: Debt Collection

Louise Haigh: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department has spent on legal advice relating to the Debt Market Integrator.

Matthew Hancock: Holding answer received on 09 February 2016



The total spend on legal fees, including external legal advice, relating to the Debt Market Integrator for 2014/15 and 2015/16 is £3,123,332.DMI has collected in excess of £22m up to end December 2015.

Commission on Freedom of Information: Costs

Margaret Ferrier: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the estimated total cost to the public purse is of the Independent Commission on Freedom of Information review of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Margaret Ferrier: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost to the public purse has been of the Independent Commission on Freedom of Information since its establishment.

Matthew Hancock: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Sheffield Central on 19 October 2015 to UIN: 10764.

Voluntary Work: Young People

Dr Andrew Murrison: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of the National Citizen Service participants are from (a) independent schools and (b) BME backgrounds.

Mr Rob Wilson: National Citizen Service attracts young people from all backgrounds and walks of life. The latest evaluation showed that 27% of NCS participants were from non-white backgrounds compared with 19% of the comparable general population. Data is not currently held on the proportion of young people from independent schools participating in NCS. However, the Trust will begin to collect this detail this coming summer. Independent schools such as Dulwich College, Leicester Grammar, James Allen's Girls School and Hymers College, along with others, are referring pupils to NCS. NCS is also now featured on the new Independent State Schools Partnership website (www.schoolstogether.org).

Efficiency and Reform Group: Ipsos MORI

Louise Haigh: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his Department's spending data for October 2014, for what reasons IPSOS Mori was engaged on the business case for Efficiency and Reform Group fraud, error and debt.

Matthew Hancock: Holding answer received on 10 February 2016



Ipsos MORI were commissioned by the Grants Efficiency Programme to conduct research to help us to further understand the make-up of the complex grants landscape across 17 central government departments. The study consisted of 81 interviews, which investigated a range of randomly selected grants. Interviews were held with a cross-section of Grant Managers between 15th July and 12th September 2014.The qualitative and quantitative findings from this research were used to help develop a baseline for calculating the benefits of various proposed interventions aimed at improving the administration of government grants, which were included in The Grants Efficiency Programme’s outline business case. The business case received support from ministers across government and the Grants Efficiency Programme is working with departments to deliver better information and to increase capability, in relation to grants, by the Spring.

Public Sector Transparency Board: Meetings

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Public Sector Transparency Board last met.

Matthew Hancock: Holding answer received on 10 February 2016



The Public Sector Transparency Board has been replaced with the Data Steering Group.

Voluntary Work: Young People

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many insurance claims have been lodged as a result of accidents occurring during participation in the National Citizen Service since the establishment of that scheme.

Mr Rob Wilson: The National Citizen Service Trust works with the Cabinet Office to deliver (NCS) in England. There have been no accidents that the NCS Trust is aware of where insurance claims have been lodged.The NCS delivery partner within Northern Ireland, Co-operation Ireland, has also confirmed that it has not received any correspondence from insurance companies in regards to claims relating to NCS accidents.The Cabinet Office coordinated a pilot programme in Wales in 2014 and is not aware of any resulting insurance claims by participants.

UK Membership of EU: Referendums

Mr Bernard Jenkin: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has established a group or unit to deal with the Government approach to the forthcoming EU referendum.

John Penrose: There is a long established secretariat in the Cabinet Office that deals with all European matters, including the renegotiation. This has been expanded in recent weeks to reflect the increased workload resulting from the renegotiation.

Nuclear Weapons: Russia

Jim Shannon: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the emergency response plans are in the event of Russia firing a nuclear bomb.

Mr Oliver Letwin: We live in an unpredictable world and if a threat to the UK were to arise from a nuclear-armed adversary, we would seek to ensure that they were deterred from using nuclear weapons by convincing them that the costs to them of doing so greatly outweighed any gains they could hope to make.Other chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats are considered as part of the National Security Risk Assessment and this is reflected in the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015. The Government’s approach to preparing for emergencies is to prepare for the common consequences of a range of civil emergencies. This is supplemented with proportionate planning and capability building for the highest impact and most concerning risks, of which a nuclear terrorist attack in the UK is one.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Animal Welfare: Trapping

Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to introduce (a) stricter regulations and (b) a ban on the use of snares.

Rory Stewart: In 2012 Defra published research on the extent of use and humaneness of snares in England and Wales. Following publication of the report, officials worked with stakeholders to explore options in light of the report’s findings. We are considering options and will make an announcement in due course.

Dogs: Animal Breeding

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans her Department has to commence the provisions of Schedule 23 of the Deregulation Act 2015 on the Breeding of Dogs Act 1973.

George Eustice: My Department has no plans to commence paragraphs 35 and 36 of Schedule 23 of the Deregulation Act 2015, relating to the Breeding of Dogs Act 1973. While the option to do so remains, we believe that for the foreseeable future these records do have a role in assisting Local Authorities investigating welfare concerns at dog breeding establishments. This will mean that licensed dog breeders will therefore be required to continue keeping records in a prescribed form.

Flood Control: Finance

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, by what process local flood groups can apply for an allocation from the £2.3 billion of flood defence funding announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.

Rory Stewart: If a local flood group wish to progress a flood management scheme it should contact its local Environment Agency or the relevant county council or unitary authority for its area. Details for each local Environment Agency office can be obtained by email: enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk or by telephone: Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm 0370 8506 506.

National Wildlife Crime Unit

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps to assure the future funding of the National Wildlife Crime Unit for the next five years.

Rory Stewart: The Government remains committed to tackling wildlife crime. We are currently allocating our Spending Review settlement. Future funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit will be decided as part of that process.

Flood Control

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her speech at the Oxford Farming Conference on 6 January 2016, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on how responsibility for maintaining local watercourses will be shared.

Rory Stewart: Following discussions between Defra, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the Somerset Rivers Authority, the Secretary of State for DCLG confirmed that authorities in Somerset will be able to raise extra funding via a shadow precept from April 2016. The Government also provides funding to Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs) to carry out their duties under the Flood and Water Management Act. As part of the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2016-17, the DCLG has proposed protecting LLFA funding in real terms over the life of this Parliament.

Flood Control

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her speech at the Oxford Farming Conference on 6 January 2016, what additional powers she plans to grant to internal drainage boards and other groups to maintain local watercourses.

Rory Stewart: The Government believes that flood risk management work should be carried out by those best placed to do it. The Environment Agency (EA) works in close partnership with Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs) and regularly discusses local watercourse maintenance plans with them, including to agree where IDBs could do work on the EA’s behalf, through public sector cooperation agreements. We will continue to discuss with IDBs and other groups where they could take on more responsibility and control of local flood risk management, including by facilitating flood risk partnerships.

Recycling: Christchurch

Mr Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her Department's financial contribution was to the Christchurch beach recycling scheme; and what assessment has been made of the cost-effectiveness of the works carried out under that scheme.

Rory Stewart: The Christchurch Beach Recycling Scheme took place in 2015 and cost a total of £640,000. The EA contributed £585,000 under the repair and recovery programme allocation of funding as urgent works. The remainder of costs was met by Christchurch Borough Council. The project was assessed by the Environment Agency’s Large Project Review Group, which considered the Scheme’s viability, including cost benefit analysis.

Flood Control: Christchurch

Mr Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what research her Department has undertaken on the best available means of countering coastal flooding and beach erosion at Avon Beach, Christchurch.

Rory Stewart: The Poole and Christchurch Bays Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) assessed options for managing the Avon beach and has set a policy of ‘holding the line’. This means its defences will be maintained and upgraded or replaced in their current position where funding permits. The SMP is available on line at: www.twobays.net/index.htm.

Air Pollution: Greater London

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of air quality in London.

Rory Stewart: We assess compliance annually for a range of pollutants covered by European directives for all UK zones, including Greater London. The latest compliance report Air Pollution in the UK 2014 was published in September last year and is available on the UK-Air website: http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/library/annualreport/viewonline?year=2014_issue_1 The air quality plan we published in December last year sets out the measures we are taking to reduce levels of nitrogen dioxide in London. The plan is available on the GOV.UK website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/air-quality-in-the-uk-plan-to-reduce-nitrogen-dioxide-emissions

Department of Health

Cholesterol

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will introduce cascade testing in the NHS Health Checks Programme to improve the identification of patients at risk of familial hypercholesterolaemia.

Jane Ellison: The Government is committed to continuing to bring scientific and clinical rigour to the National Health Service Health Check programme. Public Health England have established an Expert Scientific Clinical and Advisory Panel, formed of eminent clinicians and academics, which keep the evidence and programme content under review. Currently, there are no plans to introduce cascade testing for familial hypercholesterolaemia into the NHS Health Check.

Cardiovascular System: Diseases

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress has been made on implementing the Cardiovascular Disease Outcomes Strategy.

Jane Ellison: NHS England continues to support implementation of the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Outcomes Strategy. It is working closely with Public Health England (PHE) on a range of preventative issues which support implementation of the strategy and promote wider improvement in outcomes. These include addressing areas such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol together with the further development of NHS Health Checks, where recent research has shown that with appropriate clinical treatment, an estimated 2,500 people will have avoided a major cardiovascular event, such as heart attack or stroke over the last five years as a result of the programme. NHS England is also working with partners to support actions that promote earlier diagnosis of conditions such as atrial fibrillation, heart failure and valve disease and improved survival from out of hospital cardiac arrest. NHS England also hosts an expert forum which brings together the relevant National Clinical Directors, national charities, the National CVD Intelligence Network, PHE and the Department. This collaborative continues to coordinate delivery of the work which was initiated in the CVD Outcomes Strategy.

Cholesterol

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps NHS England is taking to standardise the collection of data on cholesterol.

Jane Ellison: The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) provides information and data for commissioners, analysts and clinicians in health and social care and is responsible for matters relating to standardisation of the collection of cholesterol data. The HSCIC administers the Health Survey for England which is an annual survey of the general population. Since 2008, it has included measurements of total cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. The data is publically available from the UK Data Service. Additionally, cholesterol testing in primary care for people diagnosed with hypertension and diabetes is included in the Quality Outcomes Framework. This information from this is published every year by the HSCIC.

Clinical Commissioning Groups

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the projected end of financial year budget surplus or deficit is for each clinical commissioning group in 2015-16.

Alistair Burt: The projected end of financial year budget surplus or deficit for each clinical commissioning group in 2015-16 was published for Quarter 2. This can be found on the NHS England website at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/publications/financial-performance-reports/

Cervical Cancer: Screening

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve cervical screening rates among black and minority ethnic women.

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve cervical screening rates among women with learning disabilities.

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with Public Health England on steps to increase cervical screening uptake among women from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce levels of cervical cancer in 25 to 29 year olds.

Jane Ellison: NHS England closely monitors the coverage rates for cervical screening in all age groups and is committed to improving coverage and reducing variation between all groups including black and minority ethnic women, women with learning disabilities and women from disadvantaged backgrounds. Local NHS England commissioners analyse coverage rates within their area and work with general practices to improve coverage by sharing best practice. For example, commissioners in London have developed a screening coverage strategy and delivery plan, including:― Increased public awareness and engagement with screening programmes across all communities;― increased engagement with primary care and improved reliability of data; and― working with screening providers to optimise coverage. In addition to this:― A primary care cancer screening best practice guide has been developed jointly with the transforming cancer services team, clinical commissioning groups and local authority public health representatives;― linking with Cancer Research UK facilitators and Macmillan Cancer Support general practitioners to support best practice for screening in general practice; and― imperial College is conducting a randomised controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of texting non-responders on improving coverage. NHS England is working in partnership with Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support on the ACE (Accelerate, Coordinate, Evaluate) Programme aiming to generate knowledge about effective approaches to achieve earlier diagnosis. A number of ACE test sites are evaluating approaches to increase screening rates in a range of groups, including black and ethnic minority women, women with learning disabilities and women from disadvantaged backgrounds. To explore the potential to increase rates of cervical screening in young women, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme has commissioned a £1 million study to determine which interventions are effective at increasing screening uptake amongst women aged 25 who are receiving their first invitation from the NHS Cervical Screening Programme. The study began in November 2011 and reports can be expected later in 2016. In addition, the Department of Health Behavioural Insight team has undertaken a trial to investigate the use of behavioural insights to optimise the content of the invitation letter for cervical screening. Results are due in summer 2016. A routine human papillomavirus vaccination programme has been available in England since 2008, and offers immunisation to girls aged 12-14 years. It is expected that the vaccine will reduce the already low rates of cervical cancer in these young women and allow them to be protected for years to come.

Arthritis

Nigel Adams: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the recommendations of the Health Quality Improvement Partnership National Clinical Audit for Rheumatoid and Early Inflammatory Arthritis, what steps his Department is taking to encourage clinical commissioning groups to take a more proactive approach towards rheumatology commissioning.

Jane Ellison: The National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP) is managed on behalf of NHS England by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP). The first annual report of the National Clinical Audit of Rheumatoid and Early Inflammatory Arthritis was published on 22 January 2016. NCAPOP audits help drive improvement by providing local trusts with individual benchmarked reports on their performance against a range of measures, feeding back comparative findings to help participants identify necessary improvements for patients. The Rheumatoid and Early Inflammatory Arthritis audit has set recommendations for local NHS services including: improved support and training for primary care; increased clinical capacity in rheumatology services; and to improve the collection of outpatient data. Following the first national Rheumatoid and Early Inflammatory Arthritis Audit, HQIP has reported that a number of trusts have successfully reconfigured their services in order to improve patient care. More information can be found at the following link:   www.hqip.org.uk/national-programmes/a-z-of-nca/arthritis-rheumatoid-and-early-inflammatory

Hospital Beds

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for how many days each hospital in England issued a (a) black and (b) red alert in each of the last 12 months.

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many clinical commissioning groups have issued a system-wide (a) black and (b) red alert in the last 12 months.

Jane Ellison: Information on black and red alerts is not collected centrally as this is an operational matter for trusts, clinical commissioning groups and their local partners to determine.

Clinical Commissioning Groups

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the end of year budget surplus or deficit was for each clinical commissioning group in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15.

Alistair Burt: The end of year surplus or deficit for each clinical commissioning group in 2013-14 and 2014-15 can be found on the NHS England website at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/publications/financial-performance-reports/

Colorectal Cancer: Older People

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to extend bowel cancer screening to all people aged 50 and older.

Jane Ellison: Bowel cancer screening by faecal occult blood testing for men and women aged 50 to 74 was recommended by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) in July 2003. Following the UK NSC’s recommendation, bowel cancer screening in England was initially offered to men and women aged 60 to 69 years old. The original programme in England only invited people in their 60s because the risk of bowel cancer increases with age, with over 80% of bowel cancers being diagnosed in people who are aged 60 or over. In the pilot, over three times more cancers were detected in people aged over 60 than under 60, and people in their 60s were most likely to complete a testing kit. In addition there were issues about endoscopy capacity. The programme has now been extended to men and women aged up to 74. Men and women aged over 74 can self-refer for screening every two years if they wish. In 2011, the UK NSC recommended that screening for bowel cancer using bowel scope screening could be offered. The NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme is currently rolling out Bowel Scope Screening (BSS), an additional one off examination for men and women aged 55 with the aim of detecting and removing any adenomas (polyps) at an early stage to prevent bowel cancer from developing. We are on track to achieve the commitment of all local BSS screening centres in England being operational by the end of 2016.

Musculoskeletal Disorders

Mr David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure provision of specialist respiratory care for people with muscle-wasting conditions; and if he will make a statement.

Mr David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress he is making on improved access to specialist psychology support for people with muscle-wasting conditions.

Jane Ellison: NHS England commissions specialised neurological services at a national level, including those with muscle-wasting conditions. The relevant service specification sets out what designated specialised providers must have in place to offer evidence based safe and effective care. Patients should have access to a multidisciplinary team (MDT) to assess, diagnose and provide support. The MDT will include neuromuscular consultants, neuromuscular physiotherapists, psychologists, specialist nurses, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and other health professionals. The specification also sets out that neuromuscular clinics need to identify those at risk of respiratory problems and refer for specialist respiratory assessment and monitoring.  The specification can be found at the following link: www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/d04-neurosci-spec-neuro.pdf A separate specification covers services for children: www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/e09-paedi-neurology.pdf

Health Services: Older People

Mr David Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the overall quality of (a) primary health, (b) hospital and (c) community services for older people.

Alistair Burt: The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England and has a key responsibility in the overall assurance of safety and quality of health and adult social care services. The CQC published its State of Care 2014-15 report in October 2015. It reported that 85% of the general practitioner (GP) practices CQC have rated are good or outstanding. The CQC inspects GP practices against six population areas, which includes older people. The latest results of the GP Patient Survey, published on 7 January 2016, indicate that patients over 75 have consistently higher rates of satisfaction with their GP services than other age groups. Overall care quality of providers is assessed regularly by Monitor and the CQC. And there are large scale national audits reporting on specific areas that are likely to be more relevant to older people for example the National Hip Fracture Data Base and the National Audit of Intermediate Care. The CQC’s State of Care 2014-15 report (October 2015) reported that 35% of acute hospitals were rated as good or outstanding. NHS England published in 2014 “Safe, compassionate care for frail older people using an integrated care pathway: Practical guidance for commissioners, providers and nursing, medical and allied health professional leaders”. This document summarises the evidence of the effects of an integrated pathway of care for older people and suggests how a pathway can be commissioned effectively using levers and incentives across providers. The CQC registers and inspects community providers and community trusts to ensure that they follow a set of fundamental standards of safety and quality below which care should never fall. 59% of adult social care providers were rated as good or outstanding in the CQC’s October report. The trends in patient satisfaction for community services are tracked and reported monthly through the Friends and Family Test (FFT). FFT is an important feedback tool that gives patients the opportunity to provide feedback on their experience and helps the National Health Service to drive improvement in the services it provides. The latest FFT results from September until November 2015 showed that 95% of respondents would recommend the services they have used in the community services settings.

NHS Property Services

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what data sets are maintained by NHS Property Services.

George Freeman: NHS Property Services currently holds data sets under three categories – Asset Management, Facilities Management (FM) and Finance. The Asset Management data set holds information under 27 categories, including the Company’s legal agreements with landlords and tenants, site plans and schedules of occupation. The FM data set holds information under 13 categories, including cost breakdowns by property and basic building and utilities data. The Finance data set holds information under four categories, including a financial register of major assets above £5,000. The Company currently has an on-going project to create a central database of all information relating to the portfolio. This is considered key to providing the detailed level of consistent data necessary to manage its spaces optimally.

Palliative Care: Young People

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to support young people who have been receiving palliative care and are transitioning from children's to adults' services.

Ben Gummer: The Department has provided grant funding to Together for Short Lives which is the membership organisation for children’s hospices to support the Transition Taskforce to provide guidance and training that supports good transitions locally between children’s and adult services for those with life-limiting conditions or needing palliative care.

NHS: Finance

Heidi Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2016 to Question 25603, on NHS: finance, with which seven trusts Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority have met since 15 January 2016.

Ben Gummer: Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority are unable to disclose the seven trust names that they have met since 15 January for commercial-in-confidence reasons.

HIV Infection: Medical Treatments

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the recent finding by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine that pre-exposure prophylaxis could reduce HIV rates in men who have sex with men by between 40 and 60 per cent; and what steps he is taking to make pre-exposure prophylaxis available to people in this group.

Jane Ellison: NHS England is working with local authorities, clinicians, patient representatives and Public Health England to consider the clinical and cost effectiveness of providing Pre-exposure prophylaxis to at-risk groups to prevent them acquiring HIV. This includes a full review and analysis of published literature in this area.

Macular Degeneration

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in the UK have been diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration in each of the last five years.

Alistair Burt: We do not have information on the numbers of people diagnosed with age related macular degeneration in each of the last five years. What we do have is the number of finished admission episodes, for England, for the last five years, where the primary diagnosis was ‘degeneration of the macular and posterior pole’. Age group2010/112011/122012/132013/142014/15 0-422323 5-912736 10-1469883 15-1991810119 20-244332213620 25-295129334745 30-346142575658 35-39957310110073 40-44162156162229148 45-49256254319377386 50-54417439477636603 55-599808129731,2161,283 60-642,6172,5892,6472,8332,767 65-694,7405,1535,9826,4276,729 70-748,6858,9379,7709,84710,671 75-7912,99814,05115,34714,50616,069 80-8416,56817,08318,76517,74718,847 85-8913,11413,96015,55014,26215,497 90+5,3826,1797,3207,3188,580 Unknown8671118 TOTAL66,19569,82677,55975,67281,815   This would include age related macular degeneration, as well as other conditions. It also only relates to people admitted to hospital not those seen in outpatients or primary care. Notes: A finished admission episode is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the same period.

Spinal Injuries: Medical Treatments

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when electrical impulse equipment for spinal injuries will be available on the NHS.

Jane Ellison: The Department is aware of a number of recent newspaper articles about research into the use electrical impulse devices for the treatment of spinal injuries. This research is at a very early stage and the technology has yet to demonstrate its efficacy and safety in clinical trials in humans.

Blood: Donors

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health of 26 November 2015, Official Report, column 1481, what the (a) timetable and (b) terms of reference are of the review of blood donation policy by the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs.

Jane Ellison: The Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood Tissues and Organs (SaBTO) decided at its meeting in January 2016 to carry out a review of deferral criteria for blood donors in relation to risks both from sexually transmitted diseases and from infections potentially transmitted by other routes, for example, tattooing or intravenous drug use. The process will fully involve stakeholders, and will be incremental, with published progress reports and any intermediate advice. The terms of reference will be published once approved by SaBTO.

Neurology

Mrs Anne-Marie Trevelyan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to fill the role previously held by the National Clinical Director for Adult Neurology at NHS England; and what assessment his Department has made of the contribution of that role to NHS services.

Jane Ellison: Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS England’s Medical Director, has undertaken a review of the National Clinical Director (NCD) resource designed to focus clinical advisory resources on areas where major programmes of work are currently being taking forward, or areas identified as priorities for improvement. As a result of the review, NHS England has proposed to change the way in which clinical advice is received in speciality areas in the future.Where there will no longer be a specific NCD role, NHS England will secure expert clinical advice from its Clinical Networks and through its relationships with professional bodies and by appointing clinical advisors. For neurology it is planned that access to advice will be through clinical leads and members of the NHS England-funded neurology clinical networks, the Neurology Clinical Reference Group and Royal Colleges. It is expected that these new arrangements will be in place from 1 April 2016.The Neurology Intelligence Network (NIN) is a joint partnership programme between Public Health England (PHE) and NHS England to support the generation and dissemination of neurology related health intelligence. PHE currently funds the on-going design, development and management of the NIN.

NHS England: Deloitte

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 8 February 2016 to Question 25818, on NHS England: Deloitte, how many policies NHS England is working on with Deloitte and its clinical reference group.

George Freeman: Due to the need to safeguard commercial-in-confidence information, we are unable to provide a breakdown of the number of policies completed within the contract.

Department of Health: Grants

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2016 to Question 25465, if he will publish the (a) total value and (b) number of grants made by his Department in the last 12 months as part of (i) the Innovation, Excellence and Strategic Development scheme, (ii) the Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund, (iii) the Strategic Partnership Programme and (iv) Specific Policy Grants supporting Departmental policy.

Alistair Burt: The following information shows new grant awards made by the Department in the financial year 2015/16. Recipients of grants include voluntary organisations. The Innovation, Excellence and Strategic Development scheme and the Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund grant awards shown here span a period of up to three years. Scheme / ProgrammeNew Awards Made (£)Number of New Awards madeInnovation, Excellence and Strategic Development£5,980,96414Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund£2,789,77725Strategic Partner Programme£4,020,00023Specific Policy Grants£133,112,64325

Junior Doctors: Pay

Heidi Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 10 November 2015 to Question 14327, on junior doctors: conditions of employment, whether future junior doctors will receive a salary equivalent in real terms to the salary guaranteed to the current cohort of junior doctors to whom pay protection will apply.

Ben Gummer: Average earnings for junior doctors will remain the same under the new contract as under the existing contract. This will apply equally to future junior doctors as to the current cohort.

Housing Benefit: Supported Housing

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2016 to Question 25549, if he will have discussions with the Secretary of State for (a) Work and Pensions, (b) Communities and Local Government and (c) other Government departments on proposed changes to housing benefit for tenants in supported housing; and if he will make an estimate of the number of people likely to be affected by the proposed change.

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he has made an assessment of the effect of proposed changes to housing benefit on tenants in supported housing and their access to mental health services.

Alistair Burt: Shortly, we will be engaging colleagues across Government on the proposed changes to housing benefit. As the cross-Government lead, the Department for Work and Pensions is coordinating any work to understand the likely impact of the reforms.

Mental Health Services: Ethnic Groups

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 8 February 2016 to Question 25729, when he plans to (a) complete the BAME benchmarking pilot and (b) publish the benchmarking tool.

Alistair Burt: NHS England will begin the collection and analysis of responses from services in March. Following final sign off, NHS England expect to publish the benchmarking tool no later than June 2016.

Housing Benefit: Supported Housing

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the evidential basis provided by his Department to HM Treasury was to inform the decision to cap housing benefit for people in supported housing.

Alistair Burt: The Department did not submit any evidence to HM Treasury to inform the decision to cap housing benefit for those in supported housing, announced in the Spending Review 2015.

Suicide

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to improve suicide prevention policies in response to the statistics on suicides in the UK, 2013 Registrations, published by the Office for National Statistics on 19 January 2016.

Alistair Burt: The Government has invested over £1.5 million on suicide and self-harm prevention research since the National Suicide Prevention Strategy to inform and target our strategy for reducing suicide rates. In January last year, we asked local areas to aspire to an ambition of zero suicides, to raise awareness around mental health and suicide prevention in particular. We are in the early stages of discussions about re-invigorating the National Strategy to drive local delivery. We are developing those plans for this, and will make an announcement shortly. The highest cause of death in young men and women in England is death through suicide, and rapid skilled response through a well-publicised access route is essential to reduce mortality. The NHS111 Mental Health Programme has been set up specifically to improve services and NHS England is working with Mind and the Telephone Helplines Partnership to develop a training course designed by people with lived experience specifically to support 111 call handlers deliver the best possible response in times of crisis.

Postnatal Depression

Gavin Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on whether there is a causal link between a mother suffering from post-natal depression and the number of children aged up to three years old taken into care.

Alistair Burt: Neither the Department of Health nor the Department for Education holds the information requested. The latest statistics on looked-after children at both national and local authority levels for the financial year 2013 to 2014 can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption--2 Table A1 (National Tables) gives a breakdown of the primary reasons for children becoming looked after.

Postnatal Depression

Gavin Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether a diagnosis of post-natal depression is routinely shared with social services.

Alistair Burt: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published guidance (Clinical Guideline 192 December 2014) that offers evidence-based advice on the recognition, assessment, care and treatment of mental health problems in women during pregnancy and the postnatal period (up to one year after childbirth) and in women who are planning a pregnancy. The guidance references appropriate sharing of information with healthcare professionals involved in the woman’s care, respecting confidentiality and rights of the child (particularly in relation to girls and young women) and involving family and carers, with the agreement of the woman. There is no specific reference to social services, nor does it suggest that diagnoses should be routinely shared with them. The majority of diagnoses take place in primary care. If a woman is diagnosed with post-natal depression whilst being cared for within specialised services, including perinatal mental health services, routine notification to social services for patients does not take place. Where child protection concerns arise, a notification to social services would occur prior to discharge.

Palliative Care: Children

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many clinical commissioning groups and local authorities are jointly commissioning children's palliative care.

Ben Gummer: Clinical commissioning groups have responsibility for ensuring that they are meeting the needs of those requiring children’s palliative care services. We do not collect information on how clinical commissioning groups commission children’s palliative care.

Postnatal Depression

Gavin Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of pregnancies result in a diagnosis of post-natal depression.

Alistair Burt: We are advised by the Health and Social Care Information Centre that data is not collected on the diagnosis of post-natal depression. The NHS Improving Quality report; Improving Access to Perinatal Mental Health Services in England – A review (published September 2015), says that post-natal depression prevalence within the first few post-natal months is estimated to be 13%. This suggests that following the 687,346 maternities in 2014 in England and Wales, there were around 90,000 women in 2014 who suffered from post-natal depression in the first few post-natal months.

HIV Infection

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect on HIV support services of changes to commissioning and delivery of such services.

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on patient care of reductions in funding of HIV support services from April 2016.

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of local authorities in carrying out their duties under the new commissioning arrangements to ensure that the needs of people living with HIV in their areas are met.

Jane Ellison: Decisions on funding and access to social care support services for people with HIV are made by local authorities. The Care Act 2014 sets out the legal framework for social care in England, and this applies to all adults with support needs including those living with HIV. Diagnosed early most people with access to HIV treatment can expect a near normal life expectancy. Public Health England monitors the results of individuals receiving NHS HIV treatment. In 2014, 91% of people attending for care were receiving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment of which 95% were virally suppressed and very unlikely to be infectious to others. The United Kingdom is already ahead in meeting two of the three ambitious UNAIDS 90/90/90 global goals of 90% of people with HIV being diagnosed, 90% on ARV treatment and 90% viral suppression for those on ARV treatment by 2020.

King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the financial performance of King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Alistair Burt: In March 2015, Monitor launched an investigation to find a lasting solution to performance issues and financial difficulties at King's College Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Following the investigation and evaluation of the progress the trust had achieved, Monitor initiated a programme of work to ensure that credible turnaround and strategic plans were put in place for the benefit of patients. Monitor has supported the trust to produce financial recovery plans and a five-year strategic plan and is co-ordinating the joint actions that are required across the local health economy to ensure delivery of the plans. The Department has approved an application from King’s for Interim Support Funding for the remainder of the current financial year, up to an agreed limit. Further work is currently in progress to assess the trust’s future requirements.

NHS Foundation Trusts

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support his Department is giving to foundation trusts that are experiencing cash shortages.

Alistair Burt: Cash support is provided to foundation trusts to ensure the continued delivery of safe and quality health services during a period in which an assessment is made of the underlying issues and a recovery plan developed. The range of financial support available is set out in the Secretary of State’s Guidance under section 42A of the National Health Service Act 2006.

NHS: Negligence

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on (a) overall levels of available compensation and (b) confidence in the NHS of fixed recoverable costs in clinical negligence cases for patients who are (i) over the age of 60 and (ii) female.

Ben Gummer: The Department has established a working group to look at the impact of the proposal on equalities, health inequalities and families. The consultation stage assessment for the introduction of fixed recoverable costs for clinical negligence is work in progress and we will seek views on the impact of the policy on equalities, health inequalities and families within the consultation. We can confirm that age and gender, along with the other protected characteristics named within the Equality Act 2010, will be considered. The policy is not seeking to reduce the amount of damages but to reduce the levels of recoverable legal costs and to make claimant legal costs more proportionate to damages and defence costs.

Women and Equalities

Equality and Human Rights Commission: Finance

Mary Glindon: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what budget has been allocated to the Equality and Human Rights Commission for (a) 2016-17, (b) 2017-18, (c) 2018-19 and (d) 2019-20.

Mary Glindon: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what change there has been to the level of the Equality and Human Rights Commission budget since 2007; and if she will make a statement.

Caroline Dinenage: Following the results of the Spending Review the Department for Education is currently finalising budgets over the review period for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) along with other budgets for which the Department is responsible. I am not in a position to confirm the level of funding that the EHRC will receive until this process is complete.The EHRC’s budget is available in its annual report, which is available to view here: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/about-us/about-commission/corporate-reporting/annual-reports